Uvsugvez
by Nidoa
Summary: Elizabeth Parker, a girl of 15, gets herself kicked out of school and sent to a reform school Ms. Harper's School for Girls, and that's when all sorts of crazy things start happenings, Things that could only be supernatural. This is unedited.
1. Welcome to Harper Hall

Prologue

In the beginning, there was good and evil, light and darkness.  These forces were powerful and always at war.  For a millennia, or so, the battle raged on all over the universe, until a greater power came into being and ended the fighting.  This greater power created man, and put a small piece of good, and a small piece of evil, into the heart of his creation.  Now the war of good and evil rages silently in everyone on earth, listen closely, and you shall hear it.

Good and evil were too powerful and important for the greater power to destroy.  That is why it was merely broken up into billions of tiny pieces.  This keeps good and evil balanced, neither one heaped together to overwhelm the other.  However, the greater power never thought that his creation would grow as intelligent as to denounce him.  Man began to experiment with the gifts, using dark rituals, or simple blessings, to gain power and awaken at least part of that gift.

Most of earth's inhabitants awakened the good, bringing light into the world.  There were others, though, that awakened the evil inside themselves, shrouding the night in darkness.  As soon as men discovered this strange new idea, many became what we now call witches.  There was a select group, handpicked by the creator, to transmit his messages to the world.  Most of them were stoned or banished by the ignorance of their fellow man, but those who kept their ability secret wrote great prophesies of an apocalyptic war in the distant future.  That time is now.

Chapter One tc \l1 "Chapter One 

"Are you sure about this, Mom?  I mean, a private school, I'm not that awful, am I?"  I grumbled as we trudged up the imposing stone stairs, dragging my dingy old suitcases.  

"Yes, I'm sure darling.  Don't worry; it'll be fine.  As soon as you settle in, I'm sure you'll just love it here.  You'll see, it'll be just like a slumber party every night, honey.  Just think it'll be like you have a dozen sisters, like you always wanted!"  Mom tried.  God, I hate it when she gets like that!

"Oh quit patronizing me, Mother.  I hate this!  I will always hate this!  There is nothing you can say or do to change that!" I spat the words out between gritted teeth and stomped up the last three steps.

"Darling, you'll get used to it, just give it some time."

"Sure, Mom.  Whatever." I answered.

"Sugar, what do you want from me?" She cried.  I turned and faced her.

"I want Tommy.  I want my make-up.  I want to wear what I want to wear, and I want my book. But most of all, I want to wake up, right now, in my own little bed and let this whole thing have been a horrible dream.  That is what I want from you, Mother.  That's it."

  


"Well, I guess I can see why you hate me.  I can't give you anything you want." Mother said, frigidly.  "I can, however, explain as to why."  She cleared her throat and began in a monotonous tone.  "No toys, the dress code, i.e., is to be followed precisely, which means uniforms and no make-up, and your little pranks and flunking grades cost you your book and have destroyed the last of someone else's possessions¼" Mother went on and on, as she always does, with her list of my past run-ins with trouble and, as always, ended with "Now do you understand, Dear?"  And the classic "Me and your father still love you just as much."

"Let's just get this over with, okay?"  I grumbled.  

Mother's back stiffened, she nodded curtly, and said "Yes, let's be done with it."  I opened the massive oak door and she followed me through.  

The inside of the building was just as prim and proper as the ivy covered brick outside.  The ceiling, towering fifty feet above us, was decorated with angels that were more depressing than cheerful.  Other than two sofas set across from each other, and a table in between, the room was sparsely furnished.  The dimly lit space gave an eerie shadow that mimicked my own personal depression.  Our footsteps echoed as we wandered over to one sofa and sat down.

"Hmm, for a big school, it sure seems empty."  Mother whispered.  She squeezed my hand gently, comforting herself more than me.  "Well, let's look for the Head Mistress, shall we?" She said, perkily, standing up again.  She turned towards the nearest door and I followed along glumly.  She knocked lightly, listened for a response, and then timidly opened the door.

"Hello?" She whispered.  "Is anyone here?"

I followed her into the dusty dank room and laughed, "No, Mom, there's no one here.  They all died of boredom.  That's usually the case in these hoity-toity schools."

"Oh Liz, be reasonable.  It won't be that bad." Mother chided.

"Tell that to the other kids." I said, striding over to a glass door and jerking my thumb towards the people on the field.  Mother's gaze followed mine to the four perfect rows of twelve, plus the fifth row with one vacancy.  They were the carbon copy drones called the students of Harper High.  "They're like robots." I laughed when they started marching towards the building.

"Well, my little soldier, it would do you some good to learn self-discipline." She said, pinching my cheek.  She was probably referring to the fact that my last hobby had been rather illegal.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"    

"Darling, you skateboarded on the rooftops of six public buildings while your friends filmed it." Mother stated.  "And you wonder why you were expelled!"

"Hey, I didn't know it was illegal.  Besides, school is a learning environment, and I was learning new tricks." I cracked. 

"Yes, well, I hope you learn more useful things here; like manners, proper lady-like behavior, and responsibility." Mother said crisply.  "And learn what a proper young woman should wear." She said, lightly touching the hood on my sweatshirt.

  


"May I help you?"  Sometime during our little chat, someone had entered the room.  I spun around to see an old little woman with a strict air about her.  She wore a black dress from her chin to her ankles with her once jet-black hair in a tight bun.  She had a stern face and a menacing look in her eyes.  "May I help you?" She repeated.  She had a strange accent; thick, like German and somewhat slurred.

"Yes." Mother answered, taking a few steps towards the woman.  She reached out to shake the woman's hand, but the woman didn't respond.  Mother withdrew her hand with a queasy smile and said, "I'm Carol Parker, and this is my daughter, Elizabeth Marie Parker.  We're looking for Ms. Harper.  Elizabeth is the new student from Jefferson High."

"I see.  Ms. Harper is in her office, awaiting your arrival."

"Thank you very much, um, what did you say your name was?" Mother tried, warmly. 

"I didn't.  Ms. Harper's office is this way, follow me." Said the woman.  She led us across the hall and into a larger, more moderately furnished room.  She snapped her fingers, as a signal for us to wait, and went through a small door on the other side of the room.

"I guess we wait here." I sighed.

"I hope it's not long, I have a facial at four." Mother muttered, biting her fingernail.

"Gee Mom, I wouldn't want to take up too much of your time." I laughed, sardonic.  We waited half an hour in awkward silence on opposite ends of a stiff-backed couch on carved legs.  "Well, I guess she's too busy.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back to Jefferson." I sighed dramatically.  Just then, the door through which the woman disappeared swung open.

"Ms. Harper will see you now."

"Oh, how lovely, and when shall I schedule my next appointment?" I cracked, and the woman looked at me, quizzically.

"Darling, let's not keep nice Ms. Harper waiting.  I promise you'll be settled in by dinner time." Mother crooned.

"Oh I can't wait!"

"Be good."

"Yeah, right." 

"I mean it."  Our little conversation took place between the room where we waited and the next, between gritted teeth and phony smiles.  We entered the office, the picture of domestic dispute, to meet Ms. Harper.  One brittle hand gestured for us to sit and we obeyed.  After a short uncomfortable pause, Mother launched into her most convincing speech, dripping with charm and oozing with compliments while Ms. Harper tapped her fingernails against the desk.  I studied her intently.

Ms. Harper was old, but not so much as the maid.  She wore her hair up in a French braid and had small silver reading glasses she could look over.  She was a thin little woman, but still full of curves.  I couldn't tell how tall she was, or her age, but I guessed she was maybe 6' 4" and 40 years old.  I bet she'd even be pretty, if she weren't about to become my drill sergeant.


	2. Settling In

  
Chapter Two tc \l2 "Chapter Two 

"I understand, Ms. Parker.  It's quite normal for my students to be brought for discipline and responsibility, in fact, last year this school became strictly for girls with checkered pasts."

"It's Ms. Parker."

"Excuse me?" Ms. Harper asked.

"It's just Ms. Parker, my husband divorced me six months ago." Mother explained quietly.

"I see; just around the time Elizabeth started acting out, behaving poorly."

"Well, yes, you think she could be acting this way because of the divorce?"

"It very well could be, or, perhaps, the other way around." Ms. Harper whispered, suggestively.

"I don't understand quite what you mean, Ms. Harper." Mother replied.

"She means I drove Daddy away!" I interrupted.

"Liz, hush up, that is not what Ms. Harper means, is it?"

"I merely meant that she could have sensed the stressed marriage, and acted out to keep your attention.  Then, your husband left anyway, so the trouble escalated." Ms. Harper said coldly.  What she didn't say was, "and your husband couldn't handle the pressure of a trouble kid." but she was thinking it.

"I'm sitting right here, I wasn't acting out against anything, I was having fun, and I'm not a trouble kid!" I exploded, shooting up out of my chair.

"Liz, sit down!" Mother commanded while Ms. Harper looked somewhat unsettled. 

"NO!  I'm fifteen, I have a driver's permit, I drink coffee, I stay out until midnight, and I'm old enough to date.  I am not some child who's starved for attention!  Stop treating me like one." I shouted.

"Well, I believe you were right on the phone.  She is a spirited one, but don't worry, that can be fixed.  So, tell me, Liz, what is it you will miss most of all?" Ms. Harper said when I sat back down, directing the last question at me.

"My book." I answered, averting my eyes.

"I beg your pardon, but we have a library her larger than most high school gymnasiums.  We have books about and from almost every culture, and in many languages, so surely you can find it here." Ms. Harper gloated.

"You don't have it."    

"Well, how do you know, you have not looked?  Come now, what's the title?  I have a list here of every book in our library." She said, pulling a drawer of her desk open, and lifting out a book thicker than my suitcase.  She looked up at me, expectantly.

"You don't have it." I repeated.

  


"What's the title?" Ms. Harper urged.

"No library has it." I countered, starting to enjoy the game.

"Well this is an extraordinary school, with an extraordinary library, with thousands upon thousands of books, many or which very old and very rare." She said, leaning forward over the desk.

"It's new." I replied, lazily.  This wasn't a war, or even a battle; this was just me, mocking the enemy.

"We order every book on the best buy booklist every year, for 50 years."

"You don't have this one."

"How can you be so sure?"

"It's not a best buy."

"We also buy 20% of the books published." Ms. Harper argued, slightly blushing now.

"Not this one."

"Well then, where is it?" She asked, giving up.

"In the car.""Why isn't it with your belongings if you treasure it so much?" She asked, suspiciously.

"Because Mom said not to bring it.  It's a four hour drive, I needed something to do."  Mother watched Ms. Harper and I in our little tug-of-war of rapid-fire statements.

"Ms. Parker, why can't she have her book?" Ms. Harper asked, turning towards Mother.

"Well, uh, um, I thought it would interfere with her studies." Mother whimpered.

"Reading is encouraged here, not outlawed.  What is it about this book that is so special?" Ms. Harper asked.

"I wanted Liz to get a fresh start, without this crazy hobby distracting her." Mother tried to explain.

"Ms. Parker, will you leave us a moment?  Elizabeth and I can have a chat while you retrieve that book for me.  Is that alright?" Ms. Harper said sweetly.  Mother nodded weakly and left with the strange maid woman who had silently entered the room.  Once the door closed behind her, Ms. Harper stared at me crossly.

"Good match, I'd call it a draw, wouldn't you say?" I said, diplomatically.

"Excuse me?" She replied, her cross stare turning blank.

"Our little tug-of-war just now.  You did very well; you outlasted almost every other teacher or principal I've met."  I performed the soft little golf-clap that usually pushed resisters over the edge.

"This is a game to you?" She asked.

"I like to think of it more as a challenge to overcome." I replied.

"This book,"

"Yes?"

"What's in it?"

  


"Stories."

"I see.  What kind of stories?"

"My stories."

"What about"

"Adventure."

"And?"

"Magic."

"What else?"  

"Love, danger, and mystery."

"And?"

"And exotic places, far off lands, mystical stars, and lots of other things."

"Is that all?"

"That's about it."

"They sound interesting."

"They are."

"May I read one?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's my book and they're my stories."     "It's not nice to be stingy."     "It's not nice to ask for things that don't belong to you."  Ms. Harper opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it again, obviously at a loss for words.  "That put a cork in her." I thought smugly.

"You know, Liz," she hissed my name, "if you stay here, your Mother will be four hours away, and you can become a new woman."  Ms. Harper stood, turned around, grabbed a book off the shelf, and turned back towards me.  "Many a trouble making girl have come through those doors and left through those very same doors with straight A's and a scholarship to one of the best universities this country has to offer.  Don't you want that for yourself?  Look," she said, opening the book and spinning it around for me to see.  It was a logbook showing a chart of names, crimes, grades, and the universities those names later attended.

Jessica Hanning – 2 counts of armed robbery – 9.8gpa – Harvard

Theresa McFloy – Attempted murder, resisting arrest – 9.4gpa – Yale

Kathryn Jones – 2 counts of arson, attempted robbery – 9.5gpa – Julliard

Melanie Ward - Animal cruelty and mutilation – 9.9gpa – SIUE

The log went on and on.  I flipped the pages farther and farther back until one name caught my attention.  Carol Parker – Indecent exposure to authority – 10.0gpa – Princeton.  "Indecent exposure to authority?" I laughed.

"She showed herself to a teacher." Ms. Harper explained.

  


"Oh." I looked further and found another name I recognized.  Marilyn Harper – indecent exposure in a public place, arson of city property, possession of illegal substances – 9.9gpa – MAC.  "You?  I would never have figured you for someone who streaked, set fires, and do drugs.  Cool!" I said in awe.

"I was young once too, not so very long ago.  I accidentally set fire to a trashcan when I lit a joint in the park, and when the fuzz came, I flashed them and ran.  That was the entire extent of my run-in with the law.  How about you?" Ms. Marilyn Harper laughed.  She had a deep, rich laugh, like a singer would.

"Well, let's see; trespassing, shoplifting, I set fire to the school records in the office, I hacked into the school database and changed grades for five dollars a pop, and used the chemistry lab to get a teacher into a near coma, so we wouldn't have to take his stupid final, and I blew up the lab in the process.  That's the extent of my run-in with the law, so far." I laughed.  My crimes sounded so totally cliché of teen rebels.

"I see.  Well, I guess we're lucky to have you here, I suppose." Ms. Harper said.

"Huh?"

"Well, you must be very intelligent if you could hack into an encrypted computer system, and you must have an extensive knowledge of chemistry, much more advanced than an average freshman.  So you see, you could accomplish a great deal here, Elizabeth Marie Parker." Ms. Harper explained, standing.  Mother had walked in sometime and was standing behind my chair.  "Ms. Parker, please, have a seat.  Elsa," She said, gesturing to the maid.  "Some tea for our guests."  Elsa nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

"Now," Ms. Harper said, turning to Mother.  "Let me see that book.  If you're going to have it here, I must inspect it."  Mother handed her my book and I glared strongly at Harper.  She opened the front page and scanned along, then looked up at me, and continued flipping through the book.  She closed the book and handed it to me with the faintest hint of a smile.

"I hugged the leather bound book to myself protectively.  It gave me comfort just having it.  Grandpa had given it to me just before he died and I felt him near every time I opened the book.  He loved the stories almost as much as I did and the book had been a tradition of ours since before I can remember.  We made up the stories together, and after he died, I added some of my own as a way to talk to Grandpa.  I learned to read, write, and live by that book.

"Interesting.  How long have you had that book?"  Ms. Harper asked.

"Longer that I know." I answered.

"Well, I guess you may keep it here, but hear me, don't let it interfere with your studies, Okay?" She warned.

"Okay."

"The teachers will take it away from you." She continued.

"I understand."

"Do you really?"

  


"Yes, I get it.  They'll take it away, they'll read it aloud, I'll be known as a freak, and they'll probably never give it back." I said.

"Good.  Now I feel you actually are listening to something I said.  Ah, Elsa, finally.  Sugar, Ms. Parker?  Elizabeth?" Ms. Harper asked as the maid came in with a tray of silver and china dishes.

"Uh, yes, thank you." Mother nodded, taking the small china cup and saucer from Elsa with an unsteady hand.

"And you, Elizabeth?" She repeated.

"I take honey and vanilla in my tea, please." I replied with my best manners.  Ms. Harper made a funny face and nodded to Elsa.  Mother shrugged in my defense.  Elsa returned moments later with a bottle of honey and another of vanilla.  "Thanks."

"Yes, ma'am." Elsa said, nodding stiffly.  I took my cup and the two bottles and added a little of each until it was just right.

"Well, I guess greasy bread would sound strange to you.  We all have our own personal preferences for everything, I suppose." Ms. Harper said.  I tried to sip my tea quietly, but ended up slurping because it was so hot.

"That brings me to my next point." She said, watching me.  "Here, girls not only learn to be good people and upright citizens, but they also learn to be proper young ladies." She emphasized that last word.  "All our students learn to sit, stand, walk, talk, eat, drink and be perfect ladies.  They come in as girls in all different stages of dress and undress, but they leave here as women with diplomas, college plans, and manners under classy, tasteful clothing.  Personally, I am really looking forward to this transformation for you, Elizabeth Marie Parker."

"Uh, great.  Gee, Mom, you forgot to mention that in the car." I laughed nervously, straightening up in my chair.

"Yes, well, I didn't want you to try and make a run for it." Mother teased.

"Well, would you look at the time? It's almost noon!" Ms. Harper exclaimed, standing up to walk Mother to the door.  Elsa followed along silently and I listened to the sounds of hushed voices, and the sharp clip of high-heels on marble.  From this chair, right here in Ms. Marilyn Harper's office, nothing else mattered.  Forget Dante's Hell, Ms. Harper's School for Girls was a hell unlike no other.


	3. The Gang

Chapter 3 

****

****

The sound of high-heels accompanied by a clipped demand awoke me.  "I must have fallen asleep.  How long was I out?" I asked, still groggy.  Ms. Harper stood over me like a hawk, eyeing its tiny meal.

"About an hour.  You missed lunch, but dinner is sooner than you'd think.  It's already 1 'o' clock!  Dinner is at 6:30.  You must be exhausted to sleep like that." Ms. Harper said, eyeing me like a rotten fish again.  I looked down at myself.  I was half sitting, half sprawled in the uncomfortable, high backed chair.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so." I agreed.

  


"Yes."

"What?" I asked, totally confused.

"Ladies say yes, and never grunt.  Sit up straight, cross your legs at the ankle, and never ever use slay in my school.  You suppose, you hope, you know, you are; never I guess so." Ms. Harper said.  I tried to comply as quickly as she commanded me, but my baggy jeans refused to let me.  I fell out of the chair and landed hard on the floor with a thud. 

"I see this is going to be harder than I anticipated.  No matter, you'll be a lady in no time.  We've got a lot of work ahead of us, Elizabeth." Ms. Harper sighed.  "Come, Elsa will show you to your new room, where you'll be living this year and possibly the next three."  Elsa stepped forward, took my suitcases, turned, and shuffled softly out the door.

"Follow me, Miss." Elsa said, coldly.  She led me up a massive flight of stairs in the front hall.  The oriental carpet silenced our footsteps as we made our way up to the first landing.  Elsa paused there, looked back at me, and continued up to the top.  I followed along quietly; the portraits on the walls of girls long gone were disturbing and somehow made me nervous.

I followed Elsa down the hall, the eleven pairs of eyes following me, peeking out their bedroom doors.  Someone shouted, "Dead girl walking!"  Elsa glared at the girls and several pairs of eyes disappeared behind heavy oak doors.  The rest closed their doors almost completely, but still peeked through the cracks.  Elsa stopped, and snapped her fingers.  The remaining doors closed loudly.

Elsa reached the end of the hall and opened the last door on the right.  "This is your room, Miss."  I stepped into the room, and took a look around.  There was a queen size bed in the center of the opposite wall, a nightstand to the right of it, a chair to the left.  On the left wall was a pair of sliding doors, presumably the closet, and a little dresser with a mirror hanging above it.  On the right wall was a door, hopefully my bathroom.  The wall holding the door through which I had entered had a small table and two chairs.

The bathroom was nice and clean, though somewhat cramped.  It was just a shower, a toilet, and a sink.  Elsa left the room, while I unpacked.  I hadn't brought anything decorative; Mother said I couldn't have it, so the room had no personality whatsoever.  I decided to freshen up and clear my mind, so I headed for the shower.  While enjoying twenty minutes of scalding water, I thought about my new life.

A small time later, while I was getting dressed, there came a soft little knock at my door.  I answered it, and there, standing before me, was a thin little wisp of a girl with short brown hair and hazel eyes.

"Hi, can I come in?"  I nodded and stepped aside.  "You have a nice room, just like mine, except for the closet of colorful clothes.  They don't let us wear those here.  My name is Carissa.  The girls call me Cara, though." The girl said, fingering my favorite lavender sweater hanging in my closet.

  


I looked at Cara's clothing, compared to mine; a blue pleated skirt, a white button up blouse, and a matching blue blazer.  The only thing of color was her pink fuzzy slippers.  She caught my appraisal and said, "We usually wear black flats and blue ties, but most of us ditch those by the time we get to the classroom door."  She laughed a big, booming, rich laugh, one I didn't expect from someone her size.

"Have you seen the campus yet?" Cara asked, plopping on my bed in a very unladylike manner.

"Nope, I just got here a few hours ago.  So where's your room?" I replied, changing the subject.

"Follow me." Cara drawled.  She hopped up and went into my bathroom.  She opened the door on the other side and I followed her through.  Her room really was exactly like mine, only hers was a mirror image.  "Neat, huh?" She laughed.

We walked back into my room and sat down at the table.  "So, tell me about the outside world.  I've been in private schools my whole life, practically.  I went to a public school for a month last year, but the school burnt down." Cara sighed with her last statement.

"Wait, I thought this was a reform school, but you didn't do anything." I replied.

"The fire was my fault." Cara whispered.

"Oh." I said, biting my lip.  "Sorry."

"It's alright, everyone else was just as surprised, but I'm just another one of the girls." She said, perkily.

"So, how did you do it?" I asked.  She opened her mouth to answer when Elsa barged into my room.

"Ms. Parker, I brought your uniforms.  There are seven, one for each day of the week.  Every Saturday is laundry day, so send your week's uniforms, and anything else you've worn down the chute in your closet floor.  I've taken the privilege of putting your name in these already.  You will have no need for that kind of clothing here, so I'll just take it to the Salvation Army." Elsa said, hanging up the uniforms and taking down my clothes.

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to hold on to those, thank you very much." I replied, catching her hand.  She shrugged and hung them back in the closet.

"I see you've already met Ms. Carissa.  Since she's here, she can give you a tour of the grounds.  Don't bother changing, there's no uniform for outside.  The girls just wear them because it's all they have.  I hope the campus is to your liking." Elsa said on her way out the door.

"Oh goody, just wait right here while I go get my shoes.  You'll like it here, I just know it." Cara laughed, bouncing into the bathroom and right through.  A few minutes later, she was dragging me out the door.  "I'll introduce you to the girls on our floor." She said, and she gave a shrill whistle.  Ten girls lined up in the blink of an eye.

  


"Cara, you have to stop doing that, we thought you were Harper." One girl whined.

"Sorry guys," Cara giggled.  "Meet the new girl, Elizabeth Parker."

"Hi." I said, quietly.  The girls mumbled angry hellos.  Cara took over the introductions from there.

"This is Courtney and Monica." She said, indicating two tall brunette girls.  "We call them D," pointing to Courtney, "and T," pointing to Monica.  "Double Trouble." She explained.  "They have a way with matches."

"And this is Sidney, we call her Auzzie.  Get it; Sidney, Australia!" 

             "I get it, Cara.  What's your crime?"

Sidney smiled, "Armed robbery."  She flipped her long blond hair.

"These two are Laura and Danielle." Cara continued.  "Laura did time in juvi for hot-wiring a car in Los Angeles.   That's where she got that short hair." She laughed, roughing up the girl's bobbed black hair.  "Danielle hacked into the FBI database and screwed with their accounts because they were looking for her uncle."

"What can I say," Danielle laughed, "never mess with the Carter clan."

"We call them LA and FBI." Cara finished.  "And these two are the twins, Lydia and Julie.  They're just the twins."

"Are they ours, I mean, they don't look much older than nine." I asked, staring at the two little Asian girls with long black hair.

"They're eleven, and yes, they're Harpy's.  They're freshmen." Cara answered.  I looked at her with a cocked eyebrow and she said, "The twins are super smart, they dropped a bomb on China.  They thought it was a game, but they found it in the US defense computer system and cracked the encrypted code."

"Hey, how's it going?" I laughed.

"They um, they're mute." Cara explained softly.

"Mute?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah, you know, they don't talk."

"Oh." I shaped my mouth into an O for emphasis.

"And these last three," Cara said, pointing at a skinny brunette, a tall blond, and a curvy, curly-haired red-head, "are the baddest of the bad.  Meet Melanie, Megan, and Mandy.  Otherwise know as Shadow, Ice and Fire."         

"We can sneak in and out of anywhere.  By the way, I like that mini skirt in your closet, real nice." Melanie laughed, obviously the leader of the trio.

"If you're so good, why are you still here?" I laughed.

"We've got nowhere else to go." Replied Mandy.

"Okay, well I get all their nicknames, but I don't get yours." I replied.

"Shadow – you don't hear me, you don't see me, I follow without notice." Melanie explained.

  


"Ice – I freeze anything that sees me with blindfolds, duct tape, and sleeping gas." Megan said.  "I even have a little gizmo that freezes locks and windows so you can't hear us come in."

"Fire – Well, I'm a red-head, I use my obvious attributes to distract and burn guys who stand in the way, and I have a torch to melt metal." Mandy said.  "The three of us broke into a jewelry store, I think you'll recognize the name; Tiffany's.  It was a few years back, so we weren't good enough to get away with much, but we got away with some."

"The Tiffany's robbery of '99, that was you guys!" I exclaimed. 

"You betcha." Melanie replied.  "So what are you in for?"

"Nothing big, I just broke a few trespassing laws, screwed around with the wrong chemicals, and have a nasty habit of sticky fingers." I replied, feeling out of place.

"What were you doing when you were trespassing?"

"I was shredding." I answered nonchalantly.

"You were what?"

"Shredding, ripping, tearing it up." I explained.  Eleven blank faces met mine.  "You know, skateboarding." I mumbled, embarrassed.

"Oh, okay." They murmured.

"I also put the chemistry teacher in a coma, but I blew up the lab in the process." I laughed nervously.  They seemed to understand that better, and looked somewhat impressed.

"Alright, so now you've met everyone, let's continue the tour, shall we?" Cara said brightly.  We walked to the end of the hall, down the stairs, past the creepy paintings, and across the marble entrance to the door.  Cara pulled the door open and a small shaft of light penetrated the gloom.  She lightly ran down the front steps I had come up mere hours ago with Mother, and I followed.  The sunshine put me in a better frame of mind, and I felt at ease.

Cara and I followed the cobblestone sidewalk to another part of the building.  The grounds formed and L shape, according to Cara.  The dorms, dining hall, and school formed the longer side while the gym formed the shorter leg.  She led me up another flight of stairs and into the school.  Thank the Lord it was built the way it was, there was no chance of getting lost.

There were only 30 classrooms, split into 3 halls; the fourth hall went unused because it bordered the gym.  The three halls were Math and Science, History and Language, and Art and Music.  The main piece of the school was the library in the center, as if the school built around it was an after thought.  I swear it was the length of a football field and the height of the statue of liberty.  Okay, maybe not that big, but it was impressive.  The ceiling was completely glass; letting in the natural light and every wall was floor to ceiling bookshelves.

  


The library floor was carpet to silence footsteps, and the furniture looked soft and inviting.  Plush, overstuffed chairs dotted the room and ladders made access to the books easy as pie.  The only somewhat appalling thing in the room was a massive oak desk standing between that beautiful library and me.  A woman in black sat behind it, resembling Elsa, her hair in a bun, and her spectacles sitting on her nose.  She looked over them at me the same way a cat regards a fly; annoyed.

"Hello Ms. Apple, this is our newest student, Elizabeth Parker." Cara said, pulling me up to the desk.

"I know who she is, don't you think I'd recognize her if she wasn't new?  I know every girl in this school, not to mention their preferences in my library." She replied.  She spun in her chair, eyed her computer monitor a moment, and then began typing furiously.  "Ah, here we are, Elizabeth Parker, originally from St. Louis, then has been seen in Illinois, Florida, and finally back to St. Louis.  Then she moved to the county, then to the country down around Bonne Terre, Mo.  Am I right?" She said, spinning back to face me.

"How do you know all that?" I exclaimed suspiciously.

"My dear, your library cards.  Everywhere you've been you've gotten library cards and used them furiously.  I can't even begin to count the number of things checked out on each card, not to mention not a single fine, ever.  Your tastes in literature aren't exactly my cup of tea, but they are highly regarded authors.  I myself didn't read Little Women until I was in high school, and here it says you read it in 98, why, you must've been 10 years old, quite heavy reading for a 5th grader, my dear." She chuckled softly.

"Umm, yeah, it's one of my favorites." I mumbled.  It was embarrassing; I mean, I'm supposed to be a tough, out-of-control teenager, that's why I'm here, right?  But here I was, showing all the school that I'd never even had a library fine, some tough girl I was.

"So Cara, what are we up to today?" Ms. Apple asked, and I sighed, thankful she'd stopped paying attention to me.

"Nothing much, I was just giving Elizabeth a tour of the grounds." Cara replied.

"Well then, why don't you do me the favor of dusting off the mythology, and I'll show Elizabeth our humble library." Ms. Apple said, handing her a feather duster as she stepped from behind the desk.  Cara nodded and bounced off to a corner somewhere and I was left to follow Ms. Apple.  She showed me the fiction, nonfiction, biography, fantasy, science fiction, mythology, and anything else I might look for.  "Our library is a trilingual library, meaning it's written in English, Latin, and Greek.  We have a section on other languages here," She said, pointing to two cases of books, "and you can find any language known to man, dead or spoken.  

  


I nodded and thumbed through a book of Arabic legends.  "If you need any help finding something, come ask me and I'll search for it on the computer." Ms. Apple said, wrapping up the tour.  I looked around for a little while before choosing a book of ancient Japanese cultures and finding Cara.  We then continued the tour, and she led me out of the library.  We went to the gymnasium next.

The gym wasn't nearly as exciting as the library, but it wasn't what I'd call plain.  It had a weight room, a rope to climb, and a sauna to steam in, but that wasn't what excited me.  The place had a swimming pool!  I met the coach, who explained the curriculum of the class and what was required to pass, but I dimly remember hearing it because I was just itching for a chance at the pool.  I do, however, vividly remember Coach saying the gym was open until 9, every night, the pool, the weight room, everything perfectly accessible.  From the gym, Cara led me back to the school, the indoor path this time, and through the school to the dining hall, which was also connected to the dorms.

The dining hall was a large room decorated like a medieval castle with tapestries on the walls and a chandelier hanging high above.  Ten tables, each twenty feet long, took up all floor space.  On the opposite wall were the double doors leading to the dorms, and on the wall to the right was a large, huge, incredible fireplace.  It seemed fitting that a dumbwaiter big enough for two good-sized adults was set into the left wall.  The dining room was impressive to say the least.

Cara led me back outside and around the side of the dorms to the back lawn.  There was a patio with a small wrought iron table and chairs covered by a large umbrella from the sun.  A padded gliding porch swing sat almost against the building.  From the patio, the lawn went down hill and leveled out fifty feet from the edge of the woods.  I saw those hard-nosed, delinquent girls running around, blowing bubbles, jumping rope, hula-hooping, playing croquet and tag, practicing flips in the warm, late summer, early fall grass.  There were even a few hanging from the trees just inside the forest.  It was as if they never were the troublesome girls they had been to get here, they seemed to gain back their youth here, behaving as if they were still in grammar school.

"This is our only chance to relax, we only get until half an hour before sunset to be outside." Cara explained.  She gave a shrill whistle like before and the girls looked up, frightened.  "Floor formations!" She bellowed.  The girls immediately dropped what they were doing and formed 4 groups of twelve, plus the rest of the second floor girls.  "Ladies, this is Elizabeth Parker, the newest addition to the second floor."

"I love fresh meat." Laughed a voice from behind me.  "So this is the new inmate, looks too good to be here."

"Well thanks, and who are you?" I replied sarcastically.

"I'm Rebecca Morgan, you're worst nightmare." She sneered.

"And exactly why is that?" I asked.

"I'm one of the senior girls here and I'm in charge of enforcing bedtime, curfew, and everything keeping you here around the clock." She answered, sneering again.  "Basically, I own you, so if I say jump, you say how high, because Ms. Harper trust me completely.  Got that?"

  


             "Well, if you're supposed to keep me here, who's keeping you?  Who's got a hold on your short little leash, Rebecca?" I laughed.

"Why you –"She began, grabbing a fistful of my shirtfront.

"And another thing, when you say jump, do you mean oiley, 180, 360, grind, or a kick flip?" I laughed.

"A skateboarder, huh?  I don't like skateboarders, they don't know when to keep their mouths shut." She hissed.

"Well, good, because skateboarders don't like anyone who isn't one, so I guess that includes you, huh?"

"I'm going to personally ride you like the ass you are until you learn to check your attitude." Rebecca growled, setting me on my feet again, slowly releasing my shirt.

"Yee haw." I whispered, straightening my shirt.  Rebecca stormed away, flipping her long black hair.  "Too bad, " I murmured, "such a pretty girl, for such a mean person."

"She's known as the lust of every guy at Carson, the public school in town." Cara said.  It was understandable for Rebecca to be sought after, I mean, she really was beautiful.  She had large, almond-shaped eyes the color of moss, set below perfect arched eyebrows.  Her nose was a strong, aristocratic one that curved up on the end just above a perfectly formed mouth with full pink lips.  Rebecca could have been a model if she'd been anywhere other than Ms. Harper's School for Girls.

I sighed and followed Cara back inside.  Not long after, all the girls gathered in the dining hall for supper.  The food was delicious, but the atmosphere was one of rigid silence and unfriendliness.  I sat with my floor, as was customary, according to Cara.  I tried my best to be a perfect lady, but someone gave an exaggerated sigh and they did their best to ignore me.

After dinner, the girls lingered in the front hall.  "What's up, Cara?" I asked.

"We're waiting for Ms. Harper.  Every night, she tells us what our chores will be for tomorrow.  Everyone does chores, everyday, so we don't have to pay so many servants, and to teach us responsibility.  She likes to use chores as punishment too, especially for having an attitude, so just keep your mouth closed.  Don't speak unless spoken to, and answer everything as yes ma'am, or no ma'am." Cara explained quietly.

A few minutes later, Ms. Harper appeared in front of the throng.  She clapped her hands and gave the same shrill whistle Cara liked to use.  I grabbed Cara's sleeve so as not to get lost as we split into the five rows of twelve.  Second floor girls were right up front, followed by the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.  Ms. Harper walked back in forth in front, appraising us slowly.

  


She stopped, stared at me a moment, and moved on again.  "Second floor, you're looking ship-shape." Ms. Harper said happily.  "I see Ms. Parker is learning the rules quickly, fitting right in here.  Since I've heard no trouble about you girls at all today, tomorrow's chores will be light.  You will be in charge of folding and delivering fresh sheets to everyone, and refilling the soap in the bathrooms, if necessary."

It sounded like a lot of work to me, but my floor smiled and seemed happy about it.  Ms. Harper smiled and moved on to the other floors.  She gave them laundry, dishes, polishing, trash, windows, mopping, vacuuming, and any other cleaning job to keep the school "ship-shape".  Compared to other floors, we really didn't have a whole lot to do.  Once chores were dispensed, we went upstairs to our rooms.  

I followed Cara upstairs, and excited whispers greeted me at the top.  Forty or so girls overwhelmed the hall.  The bulk of which gathered in room eleven.  Cara was just as excited as the others, if not more.  I shoved my way to the door and stared, dumbfounded.

A man, about six feet tall, broad shoulders, incredibly handsome, stood in the middle of the room.  Girls crowded in around him, asking him questions, talking excitedly, and giggling.  He smiled and looked up from the short crowd towards me.  The man caught me staring, and his smile grew into a grin as he stared back.  My cheeks grew warm from his attention and I averted my gaze.  He pushed his way through the girls, as politely as he could, and walked right up to me.

"Hi, I'm Dane." He said.

"Hi, I'm Elizabeth.  No offense meant, but what are you doing here?" I replied breathlessly.  His attention and close proximity was doing all sorts of crazy things to my brain, and my body.

"My mom just died about a month ago, so I'm staying here with my aunt." Dane answered.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I'm such a dope." I muttered.

"It's alright, you didn't know." He laughed softly.

"So, who's your aunt, and since this is an all girls school, and you most certainly aren't, where do you go?" I asked, changing the subject to something a little more comfortable.  I eyed him up and down, and thought _yes indeed, he most certainly was a man!_  

"She's a servant, she helps out here and there with lots of things.  Her name's Samantha, do you know her?  Anyways, I'm going to Carson for the year, but I don't know quite how long I'll be here." Dane replied.

"Wow, the whole year, what does Ms. Harper think of all this, having a fox in her hen house?" I laughed, thinking _he certainly is a fox._

"What she doesn't know can't hurt her!" He whispered, smiling mischievously.   "Can you tell me what floor I'm on, because I had to sneak into the dumbwaiter to get a ride up here unseen?"

  


Meanwhile, the crowd had encircled us and was listening attentively to our conversation.  To shoo them away, I waved my hands in the air to get their attention and said, "He's only new help girls, that's all.  Go on about your business."  The girls grumbled, but they wandered off pretty quickly.  "You did a real good job of sneaking, Dane, and this is only the second floor." I laughed, gently punching his arm.

He feigned hurt, rubbing his arm and said, "Yeah, real good.  So I guess I'll see you later, Elizabeth.  I have a feeling I'm going to like living here."  He laughed again, a twinkle in his gray-blue eyes, and I laughed with him a moment, but he quickly turned solemn and sighed.  

"Uh, yeah, later." I agreed, stumbling over my own tongue.  I walked him to the dumbwaiter in room eleven's closet.  He climbed in, was about to close the door, when a sudden impulse seemed to grab him.  Dane reached out, took my hand, kissed it softly, and then disappeared behind the dumbwaiter door.  I stared after him for a while before returning to my own room across the hall.  I lay awake in bed long after my encounter with the mysterious man from the dumbwaiter before finally drifting off to sleep to delicious dreams of Dane, his gray-blue eyes, and his dark brown hair.


	4. First Day

Chapter 4

The next day was Tuesday, and I awoke bright and early at seven.  I took a quick shower and put on the clothes Elsa had left for me, the uniform I would be wearing for the next four years.  I brushed my longish brown hair back and I brushed my teeth before meeting Cara at 7:30 for breakfast.  We ate with our floor again, and took off for class when the bell rang at 8:00.  In room twenty-nine, I met the freshman Science teacher, who gave me my class schedule.

According to the little yellow slip of paper, I had Algebra 2 first, then Spanish 1, World History, English 1A (advanced), and Arts and Crafts.  After lunch at 11:45, I had Biology, Choir, and Gym, the last class of the day.  Eight classes a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, except of course at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, and summer.  The set up seemed okay, although I loathed the idea of a long school day, except one minor detail at the bottom of the schedule: Saturday – Arts and Crafts, Choir, and Gym.

"Saturday School?" I asked Cara.

"Yep.  Ms. Harper says those classes take more time and effort, so we spend 1 hour doing each.  Instead of starting at eight though, Saturday school starts at ten, so we get to sleep in some.  The rest of the day, from two on, is devoted to chores and then whatever we want to do.  I think she does it so we'll have something to do." Cara replied.

"Well, at least we get a forty minute lunch hour, my old school only gave us twenty, and we get out of class at 2:45, that's got to be before some other schools, right?" I asked.  Cara shrugged and I said, " That leaves four hours of free time and until 9 to finish homework."  I walked down the hall to Algebra and slid into the room just as the bell rang.

  


"Class we have a new student today.  This is Elizabeth Parker, and she'll be sitting next to Jamie from now on." The teacher said, pointing to a stocky redhead in the third row.  "And by the way, Elizabeth, my name is Ms. Darnel.  Alright class, open your books to lesson twenty-three.  Elizabeth, you can share with Jamie until tomorrow, when we'll get you a book of your own."  I scooted my desk next to Jamie and did my best to follow along, taking notes as fast as I could.  They'd only been in class two weeks before I came, but already they had covered everything from fractions, to square roots, to polar coordinates.

Jamie let me take her book with me so I could finish my homework.  She was already done.  I hurried down the hall and turned right into the History and Language hall.  "Room number six, Spanish 1," I read the sign above the door, and so began second hour.  The teacher followed me in, closing the door behind her.

"Hola clase.  Como estas? Esta es senorita Parker." She said.

"Muy bien, profesora.  Encantada senorita Parker." Mumbled the class.

"Now, senorita Parker, repeat after me, repeaten por favor.  Me llamo Elizabeth." The teacher said.

"Me llamo Elizabeth." I repeated.

"Soy de, "She continued, checking my transcript, "California."  I echoed her again.

"Good, Elizabeth.  Muy bien.  You just said 'my name is Elizabeth' and 'I'm from California'.  Alright, you can sit next to Franscisca.  Later on, you can pick out a Spanish name.  From now on, I am Profesora Tocina." The teacher said.

"Gracias Profesora Tocina.  Que tal? Asi asi.  Excelente, Excelente! De donde eres, Franscisca? Soy de los Estados Unidos, not just California." I laughed. 

 Ms. Tocina looked genuinely surprised, but how could she think that I had lived in California without learning a little bit of Spanish?  I mean, you couldn't even go to the grocery store and ask for a bag of ice without knowing some of the language!  I sat down next to Franscisca with a smirk and she smiled at me.  "Do you know what Tocino means?" She whispered.  The word sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on the definition.  

"No, what?"

"Bacon." She laughed.  "Tocino means bacon.  We call her Miss Piggy!" She laughed again, poking me gently in the ribs.  I smiled, smothering a giggle with my hand, enjoying being included in a secret joke so soon.  Miss Piggy tapped the chalkboard with a ruler and the lesson started.  In the short forty minutes, I learned the alphabet, numbers up to a hundred, how to tell time, and the colors, while everyone else reviewed.

  


At 9:25, the bell rang, and, after calling "Adios" to Ms. Tocina, I filed out of the room with twenty other girls.  I walked three doors down and bumped into a skinny little woman on the other side of the door.  I dropped my notebooks, Jamie's Algebra book, and my new Spanish book, plus the book of Japanese cultures.  The woman dropped a book about Egypt, plus a few maps on projector paper.  The crowd just flowed around us, as if we weren't there.

I desperately tried to scoop up my things, and looked up at the woman I had bumped into.  She seemed much too tall to be a student, with dark blue eyes, and dark red hair pulled tightly back in a bun.  She was as skinny as me, maybe skinnier, but she most certainly had the curves every woman should, curves I didn't quite have yet.  With her being taller, with an air of age about her, she most certainly had to be a teacher.  I had run head first into a teacher, who very well could decide I needed to be punished for it.

 "I'm so sorry. Really, really sorry.  I didn't see you there and I was just looking for World History, and, oh, I'm such a klutz!" I rambled, grappling with my books.

"It's alright, really.  Look, nothings damaged, see." She assured me, patting my shoulder and waving the unblemished maps in front of me.  "It happens, I do it myself all the time, but hey, at least you found what you were looking for."  She pointed to a sign above the door indicating I had indeed found World History.   

"Hey, what do you know?" I laughed.

"So," She sighed, eyeing me, "you must be Elizabeth Parker, the new student."  She guided me into the classroom and flipped on the light.

"How could you tell?" I laughed sarcastically.

"Just a hunch I suppose.  I'm Evelyn Clay, but you may call me Ms. Evy.  I like to keep an informal classroom, so everyone is on a first name basis, I just keep the Miss so people will be able to tell I'm a teacher." She laughed.

"I could tell!" I whined.  "After I ran into you, but I could."

"Really?"  

"Yeah, you're taller than everyone else, you have maps on projector paper, and¼" I replied, suddenly feeling foolish.

"Go on." She urged.

"Well, there's just something about you that makes me think you're older than us, that's all." I finished stupidly.

Some unknown emotion flickered in her eyes a moment, but she turned her back to me and glanced down at my things sitting on the corner of her desk.  "Do you like to learn about other cultures, Elizabeth?" She asked, picking up the book of Japanese cultures and thumbing through it.

"Oh, yes, I love to.  Life in this day and age is so boring, compared to that of the ancient people." I replied adamantly.  She smiled down at me, and I added, "I would love to live in any country and any year other than this one as long as it's sometime BC."

"So would I, Elizabeth, so would I." Ms. Evy agreed, something like grief in her eyes.  "I'll bet you especially like Japan and China, right?"

  


"Well, no, but I've read all the Egyptian books in this library except the one that deciphers the language and lists all the Gods, I couldn't find that one." I replied.  Ms. Evy walked around her desk, opened the bottom right hand drawer, and pulled out a thick red book.  She slid it across the desk to me and I picked it up.  It was the very same book I'd been looking for.

"You mean that book?  It's one of my favorites.  You may borrow it, if you like.  I got it last Friday and photocopied some things for class.  It's due back next week, but you can always renew it.  If you're the kind of girl I think you are, you're going to love this class." Ms. Evy said smiling down at me.

"Really, you mean it?  I can't seem to get enough of anything about Egypt, Atlantis, The Middle East, South America, or anything about dinosaurs." I gushed.

"Your interested in Atlantis?"  I blushed; everyone always laughs at me for believing in something even scientists say never happened.  I nodded my head.  "And you don't believe it when people say it's not true?"  She continued, studying me carefully.  I shook my head. 

 "I believe not only did it exist, but there's more to the story than what Socrates said, but I can't teach it unless it's proven.  Pity." She agreed wholeheartedly.  "Elizabeth, you'll make a great archaeologist someday.  Class is about to begin, so take your things to your seat.  Oh, that's right, um, sit right here in front and I'll move Larissa over there." Ms. Evy said, pointing to the first seat, third row for me, and then the fourth seat, sixth row for Larissa.  "She doesn't pay attention anyway." She giggled.

The class shuffled in around us and the bell rang.  Cara sat one seat behind me and caught me up on where we were.  Ms. Evy handed me a book with King Tut on the front and smiled.  We took notes over the religions of the ancient world.  

"Egyptians had a belief in many Gods, which is called what?" Ms. Evy asked.  I jerked my hand into the air and a few girls snickered.  "I'm sorry Elizabeth, I forgot to tell you.  I believe strongly in freedom of speech, therefore, if you know an answer, just shout it out, okay?"  I dropped my hand back to my desk and smiled weakly.

"Polytheism." I answered.

"Yes!  Now then, what is monotheism?" She continued.

"The belief in one God and that all other Gods are pagan." I answered.

"Good!  Now someone give me three different examples of monotheism."

"Hindu." I said.

"Buddhism." Cara said.  Someone else said Christianity.  We moved on to talk about the culture of ancient Egypt.  I think people got the wrong impression of me, that I was a genius, or stuck-up, because I knew everything Ms. Evy asked, plus some.  Egypt is my major interest, so I've absorbed anything and everything there is to know about it.  

  


At 10:10, the bell rang and I hurried on to English, room ten.  The teacher, who introduced herself as Ms. LaMont, seated me next to Sidney (Auzzie) and gave me a book.  We read a piece of poetry by Robert Frost, then Robert Service.  I don't remember the Frost poem, something about a wall, but the Service poem was just my style.  It was called "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and I loved it.

Ms. LaMont gave us an assignment just as the bell rang; write a poem that can be summed up in one word.  I had written one the night before, lying in bed thinking.  I'll save myself some work and use that.  Then I followed the crowd to Arts and Crafts, room sixteen, and I had a heck of a time putting glitter back in the jar.  The teacher's name was Ms. Virtuoso.  But, while everyone struggled with beads small enough to fit under your fingernails, I finished a necklace, two bracelets, and a pair of earrings.  Beadwork is one of my favorite hobbies, so it's understandable that I'm pretty good at it.

At 11:45, I made my way to the dining hall and sat down next to Cara and Sidney (Auzzie) when I got my tray.  Ms. Harper walked in and rapped sharply on a table, commanding attention.  "Ladies, let's remember our manners.  Now, we're going to bow our heads and pray."  We said a prayer or two, and then Ms. Harper disappeared again.

"As far as I can tell, this is spaghetti." Cara whispered.

"Nope, it's lasagna." Said Megan (Ice).  Melanie (Shadow) and Mandy (Fire) nodded their heads in agreement.  The girls started digging pennies out of their blazer pockets and setting them on the table.  I looked at Cara for explanation. 

"We bet on what lunch is, then we ask the help to find out for sure." She said.

I poked the food in front of me with a fork, dug a penny out of my pocket, set it on the table and said, "Muskacholi, for sure."  Everyone looked at me funny for a moment, and then went back to placing their bets.  Auzzie stopped the nearest woman to find out.

"What, can't you tell that's muskacholi?  You girls should be able to tell by now." The woman said.  All the girls looked directly at me and I shrugged.

"How'd you know that, Liz?" Monica (T) asked.

"My mother attempted to make it all the time, and the result always came out looking like this." I replied.  Cara collected up all the pennies and handed them to me.  I took them silently, dropped them in my pocket, and lunch continued.  I smiled to myself, happy that I'd already started fitting in to Harpy traditions.

  


"You girls should really stop betting, before Ms. Harper catches you." The woman whispered at us when she passed again.  When lunch was over at 12:25, I went to the Math and Science hall and found room number twenty-nine, Biology.  The teacher was Ms. Davis, and today we were taking notes over genetics.  I got into the zone, I was writing my notes without even looking and thinking of something else.  Someone nudged me and I started out of my thoughts.  Apparently the bell had rung and the teacher was staring at me funny.  

I went to close my notebook and nearly jumped out of my skin.  I slammed it shut and hurried out of the room.  I quickly made my way to the Choir room.  The teacher, Mrs. Samson, was a strict, overbearing teacher, but she was a funny, good-humored soul.  She made us sing scales, one by one; to see what part we would be in.  Then she gave us assigned seats and folders for our music, and we sang the same two songs over and over until we got them right.  

After Choir, it was a relief to be heading to gym, the class I usually loathe the most.  I'd take Coach Jones over Mrs. Samson, or "mean red" as we called her, any day.  Coach Jones was the only male teacher at the school.  The first thing we did after stretching was to see how many sit ups, push-ups, chin ups, and anything else he could think of, we could do.  Then we changed into our swimsuits and swam laps in the pool.  At 2:35, he blew the whistle for us to change back into our uniforms and get our things together.

Coach Jones was by no means a young man, in his late fifties with salt-n-pepper hair.  He stood near six feet tall and was in better shape than most guys his age, and most of us too.  He was nice, though, and I never saw him come down hard on anyone.  A girl had sprained her ankle kicking off the wall in the pool, and, instead of yelling at her, like some coaches would, he just reached down to where she was sitting at the side of the pool, picked her up, and carried her to the nurse as if a feather had more weight to it.  I watched in amazement as he walked across the gym, kicked the door open, and disappeared outside like it was nothing, when really he'd been carrying the heaviest girl in school; Martha Munch, weighing in at a remarkable three hundred pounds!

When the bell rang at 2:45, I practically ran back to my room in the main house.  I put down my books and quickly closed the door.  I sat down at the table and opened my Biology notebook to my notes.  The page that was supposed to be notes wasn't.  It wasn't even English!

I tore the page out and went to Cara's room.  I knocked twice and let myself in.  Cara swung around and stared at me blankly as I walked across the room towards her.  I handed her the piece of paper and said, "Are you good with languages?  Can you tell me what this is?"    

Cara studied the page a moment, the sat down at her table.  She started scribbling furiously in her own notebook and turned to me excited.  "Did you write this?  Where did you get it?" She asked.  I nodded and then shrugged.  "It's pictographs, it looks Incan, maybe Zapotec." She continued.

"Okay, great, but what does it say?" I asked.

  


"I'm not sure yet, but I can identify a few words.  It says something about 'The One' and prophesied by 'The Mother'." Cara answered.  "I'll keep working on it.  Will you tell me where you saw this?"        

"I didn't.  I was writing my Biology notes, then class was over and that was all over my paper instead of the notes.  Which, by the way, I don't have now.  Can I borrow yours?" I explained.  Cara gave me her notes to copy and went back to deciphering my scribbles.

I finished my homework around four and headed outside for my free time.  I met up with the gang and joined in the game hide and seek.  I felt a bit childish, but the other girls seemed to enjoy it.  I'll admit, it felt good just to run around and be a kid, even for just a little while, and I felt freer than I had in a very long time.  I spent the rest of the afternoon blowing bubbles, hula hoping, jumping rope, and learning different tumbles and flips from the other girls.

I spent the rest of the evening doing chores, eating dinner, and hanging out in my room with the girls.  Around 10:30, Monica (T) slipped out of room eleven and across the hall to my room.  She knocked lightly on my door, slipped inside, and turned on the light.  I groaned and rolled over away from the blinding light.  She tapped my on the shoulder, pressed a letter and a rose into my hand, and disappeared as quickly as she had come.

I bolted upright in bed and ripped the letter open.  It was from Dane and it read:

_Dear Elizabeth,_

_    If you got this, it means you already made some friends.  I sent it down the dumbwaiter and I hope room eleven's occupant gives it to you, whomever that may be.  Do you like the rose?  I thought it might be too old fashioned.  Oh well, I hope it wasn't._

_So, how are you?  I'm great.  School is okay, although I don't know what to say when people want to come over.  The guys would freak if they knew I lived in a girl's school.  Well, I guess I'll let you go back to bed now.  Write back soon._

_Dane _

The penmanship was beautifully scrawled across the small piece of paper.  The mention of people wanting to go to Dane's house reminded me that he wasn't mine, he didn't belong to me, and certainly wasn't going to stay single long.  The good ones never do. I thought bitterly.  I hugged the letter to me, rummaged through my dresser drawers for the stationary Mother gave me a scribbled a reply.  I expressed my love of the rose, along with a few other thoughts.

I sealed the note and tiptoed across the hall to room eleven.  I slipped inside, put the note in the dumbwaiter, and pressed the button to sent it up.  I said a silent prayer that Dane would get it as I tiptoed back to bed.  I slipped into blissful dreams of Dane and me in a thousand romantic stories.


	5. Secrets

Chapter 5

The next morning, I woke up and started my routine.  I smiled to myself as I put the rose in the already full vase of daisies on the table.  At breakfast, all the other girls from my floor crowded around me.  Apparently, Monica had spilled the beans about my midnight note from Dane.  I sighed into my oatmeal, wondering if there was a way to keep a secret in this school.

"So, what did the note say?" Cara asked.

"Did he really give you a rose?" Auzzie asked.  I nodded and said nothing.  

"How romantic!" A few girls sighed.  That was enough information for the girls to keep themselves preoccupied with dreams of romance and life outside the school.  The rest of the day went smoothly, with no sign of crazy writing instead of notes.

At 2:50, when I got back to my room, something waited for me just inside the door.  I opened the door, stepped inside, and shoved the door shut with my hip.  I turned around to toss my books on the table and, before I could scream, a giant hand covered my mouth and pressed my flat against the door.  My books slipped out of my hand and clattered to the floor.

"Shh, it's just me." Dane whispered, releasing me.  He bent down and collected my books and gently set them on the table.  "Don't freak out."

"You scared the hell out of me, Dane.  What are you doing, hiding behind my door like that?  What if Elsa had come in looking for me, and found a boy in my room?  We both would have been thrown out on our butts." I whispered, shaking a finger at him.

"You look so cute when you're angry, did you know that?" Dane laughed.  "Don't worry, I was careful.  No one saw, or heard me come in.  I think we're safe."  Just then, someone knocked on the door.

  


"Quick," I whispered, pulling Dane along, "hide in the closet!"  I shoved him inside, slid the door back in place, and hurried to answer the door.

"Hi, Liz, can I come in?  Good.  I figured out what some of that writing means." Cara said, stepping inside before I could answer.

"Uh huh, really, that's nice, what does it say?" I asked, stalling.

"Well, it starts off with this crazy bit about how evil was never truly destroyed, just broken up into billions of pieces, one piece in every human in existence.  Then it goes on to describe this prophet who say when evil was going to rise again and desecrate all of humanity.  It's said that the future last remaining members of this prophet's family will be the only one who can destroy this greater evil for good.  Isn't that neat, Liz?  Now, what I want to know is what does that have to do with you." Cara finished.  She took a breath and waited for my answer.

"Um, that's great Cara, but I've got homework to do.  I'll talk to you later." Was all I could think of to say; I was in a phase of shock.  She looked at me funny as I closed the door.  Dane fell out of the closet, laughing his head off.  "What's so funny?" I huffed.

"You!  That girl,"

"Cara." I interrupted.

"That girl, Cara, comes in, totally clueless I'm in the closet, practically tells you the world is coming to an end, and you have the nerve to tell her you've got homework!" Dane laughed.

"Ha ha, it was real funny.  I didn't know what else to say." I replied.  "I guess I just freaked out."

"What was she talking about anyway?" He asked.

"Okay, I'll tell you, but you've got to promise not to laugh.  Promise?" I sighed.

"I promise.  What is it; are you in some kind of trouble?" Dane asked, serious.

"Well, yesterday, I zoned out in Biology, like I always do, while we write notes.  Usually, I snap out of it when the bell rings, and I've written all the notes without thinking about them.  But yesterday, someone had to shake me out of it and instead of notes, I had written this strange pictograph stuff all over my paper." I explained.  Dane started to smile, then quickly hid it.  "This isn't a joke." I nearly yelled.

"You're serious?" He asked.  "You really did that?"

"Yep." I chuckled.

"And you have no idea where you got it?"

"None." I answered solemnly.

"Wow." He said, sitting down on the bed.  I looked for a place to sit close, but not too close to Dane.  I settled for pulling a chair from the table to the foot of the bed.  "What else can you do?" He asked, a little excited.

"I don't know.  Nothing, I guess, yet." I replied slowly.

  


"But you could, later on, experience other stuff?" He asked again.

"Who knows?  Anything is possible." I said, shrugging.

"How long has stuff like this been going on?" Dane asked.

"Just since I got here, and, so far, this is the only incident." I replied.  

"Well," He said, checking his watch, "I'd better get going before anyone else decides to stop by."  He stood up, stretched his lean body, and said, "Let me know if anything else like this happens, I want to know, okay?"  I nodded and moved towards the door.  I popped my head out and looked around.  Rebecca Morgan was walking up the hallway, rapping loudly on doors.

"Room checks, I heard a male voice on this floor a few days ago, so I'm making sure the body attached to the voice is long gone." Rebecca sneered at Melanie.  I distinctly saw Melanie roll her eyes as she let Rebecca into her room.  I closed the door and pressed my back against it, frantically looking for a way to get Dane out of my room before Rebecca caught us.  He seemed to understand and looked around the room as well.

"Dane, Rebecca is making her rounds!  What do we do?" I whispered.  A stream of profanities emanated from underneath his breath.  Suddenly, Elsa's voice rang clear as a bell in my mind.  "Laundry chute."

"What?" Dane whispered.

"There," I nodded, "in the closet floor.  I don't know how big it is, I've never used it before, but it's the only way out of this room besides the door." I explained.  Dane swore under his breath again and nodded.  I pushed myself off the door, crossed the floor, and slid the closet doors open.  He pushed aside my clothes, smiling as he ran across my favorite leather miniskirt.  I lifted the chute hatch carefully, so as not to make a sound.

"Well," Dane said, smiling weakly, "it seems big enough.  I sure as hell hope it is."  He sat down, dangled his legs inside the chute, the looked up and said, "Come with me.  We'll go into town, be back before curfew, and no one will have a clue.  Please?"  He took my hand and kissed my palm.

"We'll have fun, I promise." He begged.

"But, what about Rebecca?" I asked weakly.  I really wanted to go with him, but I didn't want to get caught.

Dane smiled up at me, knowing he had won.  "I'll go down first, you can stay here until room checks are done, then come down after me.  And, uh, bring the miniskirt, so you don't look like a Harper girl in town."  With that, he disappeared down the laundry chute.  I closed the hatch, then the closet, just as Rebecca knocked on the door.

  


"Room checks!" She bellowed as I opened the door.  "It's you, I was hoping I could bust you for something."  She smiled at me in her haughty way.  Rebecca looked under the bed, in the shower, under the table, and finally in the closet.  She found exactly what I wanted her to find: nothing.  "I know there was a boy in here, I can smell him.  I'll find him in here sooner or later, understand?" Rebecca said as I closed the door in her face.

I sighed, relieved she was gone, grabbed the miniskirt and a red halter top from my closet, along with my only pair of street shoes, little red stiletto heeled sandals, and opened the laundry hatch.  I took a deep breath and shoved off the floor, pulling the hatch door on my way down.  It seemed like I slid down that black cold hole forever, but I soon landed safely in a basket of sheets.  I sat there a few seconds, just breathing and enjoying my soft surroundings.  One long arm reached over the side and pulled my to a sitting position, then standing.


	6. To Town We Go

Chapter 6

Dane smiled at me and said, "I almost thought you weren't coming!"  Before another word was spoken, he reached out, grabbed my hips, lifting me over the side, and set me on my feet.

"Wow, what a he-man!" I laughed, righting my clothing and hair quickly.  "Truthfully," I said, smiling up at him, "I almost didn't make it.  Rebecca looked everywhere for you, she said she could even smell you!"

Dane sniffed his pits and laughed.  "Did she like it?"  I grinned and play punched his arm.  "What's that?" He asked, pointing to the bundle under my arm.  I unrolled the package and held it out for inspection.  Dane smiled mischievously and said, "Good, I was hoping you'd bring that?  Now let's get out of here!"

"Where exactly are we?" I asked as he grabbed my hand and dragged me through the labyrinth of washing machines and laundry carts.  The steam made the room almost unbearably hot and I had to push the now damp hair off my forehead several times.  We crossed the room to a seemingly normal wall, and stopped.  "Dane, I don't think we can walk through walls, no matter how invincible you feel." I laughed.

He turned to me, smiled, and said, "Did you ever see that movie Clue?"  He started pressing gently on different areas of the wall.

"Yeah, so?" I replied, confused.

"Well, there were secret passages all through the house.  How else would the murderer get around unseen?" Dane continued.

"What are you getting at?" I snapped.

"Surprise, Elizabeth, we have a door!" He replied, stooping down and pressing a small board against the wall.  The stone wall slid aside, scraping against the surrounding walls noisily.  "How else would I get around unseen?  The dumbwaiter doesn't go everywhere." Dane said, taking my hand again.

"How did you find this, where does it go?" I asked, following him into the darkness.

  


"I found a passage upstairs, on the sixth floor, and this is where it led.  There were other turns and passages, but I followed the stairs down here.  I'm going to explore the other ones later.  I've got nothing else to do around here." Dane explained quickly.

"What good is getting to the sixth floor?  Besides, I don't even see the stairs, I don't see anything!" I whispered angrily.  A few moments later, I stubbed my toe on a massive slab of stone.

"Oh, sorry.  I was about to warn you." Dane whispered.

"What is that?" I asked, rubbing my sore foot.

"The stairs." He snickered.  "Come on, there's more passage this way, it leads out into the grounds behind the dorms.  From there we can stick to the woods around the buildings to get to my car behind the gym, where all the workers park." 

"Oh, okay." I agreed.  Then a thought struck me and I said, "You drive?"

"Yeah, I'm sixteen.  Why, how old are you?" Dane answered.

"Fifteen." I sighed.  A long silence passed between us as I followed along dumbly.

Finally, Dane said, "I guess we don't know each other that well."  His words fell deftly between us and hung in the air.  I sighed and avoided his gaze.  "Hey," He said, lifting my chin, forcing me to look at him.  "That doesn't mean anything, just a thought, okay?  This place doesn't give us enough breathing room, that's all."

Dane gently pushed the long brown hair away from my face.  "That's why we're getting out of here, right?" He said softly.

"Right." I agreed, just as soft.  The tension melted between us and the air practically sizzled with the heat of his gaze.  Slowly, as if he was afraid of scaring me, he lowered his head, just inches from mine.  I closed my eyes and swallowed fast as the last bit of space between us disappeared.  Dane's lips were soft, but firm, gently pressing against mine.

I felt as if time stood still, waiting for our interlude to end.  He took the kiss a little deeper, firmly parting my lips and just barely touching my bottom lip with his tongue.  That wisp of a touch nearly made my knees buckle.  He must have known, because he wrapped one arm tightly around my waist, holding me firmly to him.  It seemed like forever before Dane finally lifted his head from mine.

Both of us gasped for air.  I smiled up at him and he smiled back, somewhat lopsided.  I sighed and said, "I guess we should keep moving.  After all, we're trying to get out of here, at least for a little while."

Dane cleared his throat and replied, "Uh, yeah, I guess you're right.  Come on, it's not much farther."  We walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence until I saw a speck of light up ahead.  "There, see, we're almost out now."  We did exactly as Dane had planned: we stuck to the forest and quickly made our way to the parking lot behind the gym.

  


Dane pulled a key out of his pocket and pointed towards a tiny black sports car, somewhat old, but still a really nice car.  I followed him to the car and waited as he unlocked the doors.  I sighed when he fumbled with the keys, and simply slid into the car through the low open window.  The seats were warm leather and I involuntarily closed my eyes at the feel of it.  The warm sun coming in the windows was just as divine.  He stood there a moment, slightly shocked by my simple solution, then he regained himself and ran around to the driver's side.

I sighed and opened my eyes to see him staring at me, a strange look on his face.  "What?" I snapped, embarrassed.

"You just looked so peaceful." Dane replied.  He started up the car and Metallica's "Unforgiven" blared from all sides.  He fumbled with the buttons and silence followed.  "Sorry," He said, sheepishly.  "I forgot it was on.  We can listen to whatever you want."

"Metallica's great, I haven't heard music since I got here." I replied, turning the music back on, a little softer this time, but just slightly.  Dane nodded and pulled out of the lot, heading for the gravel road running around the building.  "Uh, Dane, where am I going to change?" I asked, as we pulled onto the highway and speeded towards town.  He looked over at me, then the bundle in my lap, then the back seat.  "Oh, no, un uh.  I am not going to change in the back seat.  You've got to be kidding me!" I growled, shaking my head.

Ten minutes later, I was in the back seat of the car, flying down the highway, fighting a leather miniskirt.  "You better not be looking!" I hollered over the music as I pulled on my blouse.  "Okay, I'm decent." I said a few minutes later.  I adjusted my halter top one last time as Dane pulled over to the side of the road.  I hopped out of the car, smoothed my skirt down, and flopped into the front passenger bucket seat.

Dane glanced over quickly, then did a double take.  "Wow, that's exactly how I thought it would look." He breathed.

"What, does it look bad, do I look cheap?" I asked, straightening my hair and clothes again.

"No, no, you just look so different when you're not wearing all that snotty stuff.  It looks good." He explained quickly. _Although, it'd be better if you weren't wearing anything at all._

"What did you say?" I snapped.

"Nothing, it's a compliment.  I like you better in normal clothes.  Don't jump down my throat." Dane laughed.

I had been positive I'd heard him say I'd look better if I wasn't wearing anything, but that must have just been my own wishful thinking.  I shrugged and laughed, "Well, if you like this, you should see me when I get to be myself.  I hate being confined to polyester and paten leather.  My hair used to be purple, and I wore jewelry and jeans.  My mother made me dye it back, though, before I came here."

"Purple hair?" He asked.

"Yeah, it was this perfect shade of purple the bottle called African Violet.  It was totally me." I sighed, lifting a chunk of hair and seeing the boring brown I now wore daily.

  


"I don't know, I like your hair the way it is." He laughed, ruffling my hair.  I smoothed it back down and smiled.

"Yeah, you say that, but you never saw it when it was purple." I replied.  "It was really sexy."

You're sexy." Dane laughed, grabbing my hand and kissing my knuckles.

"Yeah, right." I snorted, but I didn't draw my hand back right away.  It was nice to have someone to myself, no matter how selfish that sounds.  I pulled a lipstick out of my blazer pocket and flipped the visor mirror down.

"Where did you get that?" He asked, as I carefully applied the hot pink color.  "I thought they didn't let you wear make-up in that clone machine.

"They don't.  I snuck it from home.  I figured if anyone could get kicked out of a reform school, it's me, and make-up is a good place to start." I explained, putting the lipstick back in my pocket.  "But I haven't had a chance to test that theory."

I like the natural look myself, especially yours.  Anyways, this may sound like a stupid question, but why do you want to get kicked out?" Dane asked.  "I mean, if my mother stuck me in a place like that, the last place I'd want to be is home with her."

"I agree.  I wouldn't be at home with that traitor if my life depended on it." I responded.

"So where would you be?" He asked, looking quickly back and forth between the road and me.

"Well, one of the girls told me, and this is top secret, that there's a building in South Carson where they don't ask for anything but your name."

"What, what kind of place is that?" Dane asked, looking nervous.  

"It's an apartment building that takes rent in cash, and doesn't care who you are, or where you're getting the money as long as you pay up." I explained.  "I could get a waitressing job and go to school with you."

"They won't let you in without any info, Liz." He replied.

"I can give them info.  Forget my mother, if she wants me to stay at Harper Hall, she's just going to have to chain me to the wall!" I huffed.

"You're really going to do that?" Dane asked quietly.

"Why, you find something wrong with that?  It sounds like a decent plan to me," I answered.

"Well, you'd be working most of the time, and then how would you go to college?" He insisted.

"I wouldn't.  I mean, I'd like to, but I'm flexible.  I can be anything I want.  I'll be alright." I sighed.

"You couldn't possibly enjoy a life like that, could you?" Dane asked.

  


"I don't know, maybe, I'll just have to wait and see." I sighed.  "Let's talk about something else for a while, okay?  Let's just enjoy what little time we have before I have to go back."

"Alright, I like that idea." Dane said smiling.  We talked about music, past experiences, and his car.  "One of the few things me and my dad did together." He explained.  "We bought it off some guy who was desperate for cash for a cool grand.  It took us three years to fix her up, but isn't she a beauty now."     

"So, what do you want to do when we get to town?" Dane asked.

            "I don't know, eat fast food, meet your friends, see the town." I replied.

                        "There's not much town to see." He laughed.

            "I don't care, just anything to keep me out of Harper's Hell." I laughed back.

            "Okay then, Carson here we come!" Dane hollered out the window.  The ride was maybe five minutes longer to the city limits.  "Welcome to the fair metropolis of Carson." He laughed as we rolled into town.  He pulled up to the curb in front of a little fifties style diner.  "Last stop, Martha's Malt Shop."

          Dane hopped out and, sliding across the hood of the car, opened my door for me.  "A lovely lady should be treated as such." He said, bowing formally.  _Funny, _I thought _no one ever accused me of being a lady before.  _I smiled and tried my best to get out of the car gracefully, and without flashing half the town.  "Allow me, milady." He laughed, offering his hand, which I gratefully took for balance.  I played along, nodding as I took his hand, then the crook of his elbow, then waiting as he opened the diner door.

            The laughter in Dane's eyes faded as a large blonde guy in a letterman's jacket swaggered up to us from the diner's bar.  "I thought I told you to get out of my town, we don't need any queers around here." The guy spat.  He was obviously a jock, with an obvious beef with Dane.  "Who's your little friend, Dane?  You know, around here, damn near everything's community property, so how's about sharing?" He laughed, swaggering a little closer to me.

            The guy obviously survived high school on his athletic abilities, not his smarts.  He looked, acted, and smelled like the classic teen movie villain.  On different circumstances, I still wouldn't have liked the guy.  He was too stupid for words, even with my high vocabulary.  I certainly hoped he got what anyone disserved for talking about a woman like that. 

            "It's a free country, Brock.  I can be where I want to be.  This is Elizabeth, and she doesn't belong to anybody, not even me.  Furthermore, I'm not from around here, I'm not a citizen of your precious little town, so she's not community property if she's with me." Dane retorted coolly, getting right up in Brock's face, blocking me.  Someone hollered to take it outside, so we continued the conversation on the sidewalk out front.

            "Come on, Dane, a little tart like this," Brock said, grabbing my wrist and wrenching me forward.   "She'll taste every guy in town without a second thought.  It won't hurt nothin' if I'm first, so what's the harm?" He drawled, grinning.  I tried to pull away as Brock bent forward and practically licked the side of my face.  "Mmm, mmm, good." He sneered.  I looked at Dane, threatening all sorts of pain if Brock hurt me, and that was it, I had had enough.  If he was just going to stand there and act tough, I was just going to have to be tough.  

            "You know what, Brock?" I said, twisting my left wrist so I could face him.  "I ain't anybody's property, not Dane, not my mother, not Ms. Harper.  You see, I'm a Harper girl, which means I don't like rules, and I have a nasty habit of breaking them, and anyone who gets in my way.  I especially don't like people tryin' to control me, like I'm some little puppet to play with.  You sure as hell ain't an exception!" I spat in his face.  Before he could retaliate, I kneed him in the groin and popped him in the nose with the heel of my right hand.  Brock impulsively grabbed himself, releasing my sore left wrist, and doubled over in pain.  Blood dripped from one nostril and splattered on the concrete as I quickly put distance between him and me, just to be safe.

            A couple of lettermen stepped in front of us on their way out the diner door.  "Hey, where's Brock?" One of them asked.  I jerked a thumb in Brock's direction and smiled.  They rushed over to him and I overheard them say, "Yo, Brock, dude, what happened?  What'd they do to ya?"

            "That little bitch, I think she broke my nose!" Brock roared.  Dane smiled at me and we started busting up laughing.  I just had one more thing to say.

            "Hey, Brock!" I called, turning around.  "You think I'm bad, you should really meet the others."

            "You can keep your goddamned girl, I wouldn't want that fat bitch if she threw herself at me!  Hey Dane," Brock called as we walked away, "I'll see you at school."  

            "That girl did that?  Jeez, Brock, don't be such a baby, it can't possibly be that bad.  I'll bet you fifty bucks she's not a hundred pounds!" One letterman laughed.

            "I thought those girls were supposed to be all snooty, cause it's a private school.  She didn't seem snooty to me, Brock." The other replied.

            "Yeah, I thought they were all easy, you just had to get in there to get to 'em.  She didn't even kiss you!" The first chortled, punching the second.  "I think it'd be a waste of time if you ain't gettin none, son!"

            "Just shut up and get me in the car." Brock commanded.  His friends snickered, loaded him in the back of a red van, and peeled out.  Dane and I went back inside the diner and sat down at the bar.


	7. Mischief

Chapter 7

            "So where'd you learn to fight like that?" Dane asked.

            "One of my mother's last attempts to control me was kickboxing lessons." I explained.  "That was the first time I got to use the punch, though."

            "Wow, so what do you want to do now? Defeat the gods at their own games, stake a vampire, duel a mobster."  He teased.  "Oh, I look like such a dork, now, don't I?"

            "No, no, I love Xena.  It's one of my favorite shows, along with Buffy, and Witchblade.  I like stuff about strong women who don't need any help from men.  To tell you the truth, I'm sort of fanatically obsessed with Buffy, although I haven't watched it in a long time." I assured him, smiling.

            "Well, we're just two of a kind, now, aren't we?" Dane laughed.  A waitress sauntered up and asked for our order, and about twenty minutes later, it arrived.  "I can't believe you could eat that whole thing, it was as big as my head!" He said, astonished as I popped the last bite in my mouth.  I smiled and took a big gulp of my shake.

            "Well, if it makes you feel better, I think I'm going to explode from eating so much." I laughed.  "I haven't had fast food in a while now."

            "But you haven't been a Harpy that long, have you?" Dane asked.

            "Just three days now, but it feels like longer.  My mother forbid fast food about a month before I came here.  She said my rage was due to the fact that my mind was rebelling against what my stomach craved." I answered, sucking down the last of my shake.  "Oo, brain freeze!" I whined, rubbing my temples.  I put my tongue to the roof of my mouth the way my dad had shown me the first time I had a slurpee.  I had been seven, and he had bought me one of those lemon icy things at Six Flags.  But that was long before they had split, and it's been quite some time since his last visit or letter.

            "Are you okay?" Dane asked, snapping me out of my reverie.

            "What, yeah, hey, what time is it?" I asked, struggling to grasp the here and now again.

            "It's about 5:30, why?" He answered.

            "Crap, I've got twenty minutes to get back among the ranks!  Come on," I said, tugging Dane sleeve, "we've got to go, now!"

            "Alright, alright, don't worry, we'll get there fast enough.  No one will ever know you were gone." He responded, reaching for the door as I dragged him out of his seat.  I snagged the car keys from his jacket pocket and was already inside the car by the time he got there.  He jumped in and I dangled the keys in front of him on my pinkie.  "Let's hope this car is as fast as that fancy engine we put in her!" Dane laughed as he started her up and peeled out of the parking space.

            We drove like crazy until we came within spitting distance of Harper Hall.  Dane pulled over and said, "We can't get back in the way we came out."

            "Don't worry, " I replied.  "I can get back in."  He shrugged and drove around to the lot.  He put the car in park and turned it off.  

            He turned in his seat to face me and asked, "When can I see you again?  This was really fun, and I'd like to do it again, sometime soon.  How can I contact you?"

            "The same way you've done before." I replied simply.

            "I can't just sneak into your room everyday, sooner or later we'll get caught." Dane argued.

            "I know, just send me notes like you did last night and when you're ready to go, knock on the laundry chute.  If I can't come, I'll knock twice, or I'll drop a note down to you.  Okay?" I decided quickly.

            "Okay." He agreed.  "Hey, wait, " He said as I struggled to get out of the car.  "One: aren't you going to change, and two: don't I get a goodbye kiss?"

            "Oh shoot, you're right.  Get out and stand by the wall, I'll just have to use the backseat again." I rushed.  Two minutes later, I was back in uniform, clothes bundled under my arm.  I jumped out of the car, gave Dane a big hug and a peck on the cheek, and ran off towards the back patio.  I faintly heard him call goodbye as I rounded the corner and smacked into someone.  I pitched backwards, but two strong hands caught my shoulders.

            "Whoa, easy there, we just keep bumping into each other, don't we, Elizabeth?  What are you in such a hurry for?" Ms. Evy asked.  Apparently, she'd been on her way home when I came blasting around the corner.  

            "Uh, uh, nothing, Ms. Evy." I said weakly.  "I was just getting a ball that flew too far, but I couldn't find it."

            "Uh huh, this sure doesn't look like a ball, Elizabeth." She replied, pulling the clothing from beneath my arm.  "This is definitely not school dress." She said sternly, examining the leather miniskirt.  "Did you sneak off campus, Elizabeth?"  She had found me out, and now I was in for it.

            "Ms. Evy, please don't tell." I pleaded.

            "You know what I think, Elizabeth?" Ms. Evy asked, bending down to level with me.  I shook my head, though I knew by heart the speech of responsibility that had to be coming.  "I think it's good to get out and have fun sometimes, so I won't tell if you don't." She whispered.  Then she winked at me and laughed, "Come on, if you're late, we'll just say you were with me, going over the homework, okay? Just promise me one thing?"

            "Okay, what?" I agreed.

            "Whoever he is, don't let him talk you into anything you don't want to do.  Even if it's something as small as sneaking out.  Promise?" Ms. Evy said, looking me straight in the eye.

            "I promise." I agreed solemnly.  We walked across the grass towards the sounds of laughter.  I gave her a big hug, then hurried off to join my floor just as Ms. Harper stepped onto the patio and whistled for the standard five lines.  We went inside and I had five minutes to drop off my clothes, wash the lipstick off, and get downstairs to dinner.  At six, promptly, dinner was served and I was right there, among the troops, hopefully no one the wiser.

            "So, Liz, where were you earlier?" Asked Laura (LA).  Danielle (FBI) shoved her and glared.

            "LA, you've got no tact whatsoever.  Liz was probably in her room, studying.  Right Liz?" FBI said, smiling wickedly.

            "Wherever Liz was, whatever she was doing, or whoever she was with is none of our business." Said T, drawing herself up straight, imitating Ms. Harper.

            "Unless you want to talk about it." Courtney (D) agreed quickly.

            "Do you?" Asked Shadow.  The other girls joined in the interrogation until I finally gave in.

            "I was in town." I whispered.  This just brought up other questions, like 'How did you get there?', 'Who did you go with?', and 'What did you do?'  "Dane took me and we had some grub at a nearby diner." I explained.

            "You had real food!" Cara exclaimed, to the shushes of eleven girls.      "How did you get out?" Asked Fire, a bit shy.

            "I thought you guys were the escape artists around here." I teased.

            "Well," Ice stuttered, "we are, but we want to know how you did it."

            "You guys can use this, but don't tell anyone you heard it from me, okay?" I whispered.  Eleven nodding heads answered me.  "Well, if you're small enough, you can drop down the laundry chute into the basement."

            "But that's a dead end, I've tried it before." Shadow argued.

            "Only if you look at it as four stone walls.  Over on the right wall, next to the cabinet of fresh sheets, there's a secret passage.  It's hidden, but if you find the switch, the wall slides away and you can walk right out into the backyard." I laughed.

            "Oh big deal, I've seen the backyard." Auzzie huffed.

            "Yeah, but Dane has a car and the fastest way to the parking lot is through the backyard." I retorted mildly.

            "Will you show us?" Fire whispered.

            "Sure." I answered; looking around to make sure no one else in the hall was listening.  "Tomorrow, after school.  We'll go down one by one."  I devised a plan to get all the girls out, unnoticed, and meet Dane at the end of the passageway.  There, he would give the girls a taste of freedom, diner food to be exact.

            After dinner, we were assigned our chores as usual, and sent to our rooms for the evening.  We were to do our homework, and then lights out at nine.  The girls crowded into my room and I showed them how easy it was to fit into the chute.  The girls tried it, and the only one who had trouble was Fire.  It turned out she had a rope and a flashlight wrapped up under her shirt.  "Mandy!" The others scolded.  Apparently, she didn't want to be unprepared for a walk in a dark unchartered passage.  "Don't worry, Fire." I said gently.  "Just drop it down before you jump and you'll fit in like butter."

            The next day went as planned.  My fourth day of being a Harpy, and I was already leading a rebellion.  I woke up to a note on my bedside table, from Dane, of course.  He was down with the plan and he'd stop by the diner on his way home from school.  At precisely 2:45, our mischief began.

            We walked to our rooms like we do everyday.  Rebecca came by for room checks at three.  At exactly 3:10, after Rebecca had walked away empty-handed, again, our escapade began.  First ones down were Fire and I.  Soon after, Melanie and Megan followed.

            "Shadow, Ice, you guys made it!" Fire squealed.

            "You too, Fire." Laughed Ice.  "Thought you might get stuck again!"  Next down were LA and FBI.  They landed almost at the exact time, and high-fived each other when they hopped out of their baskets.  I heard the telltale sound of someone in the thin metal of a laundry chute and laughed when Cara landed.

            "Glad you could join us, Cara.  What took you so long?"

            "UHG, I thought I might need some lighting." She explained, holding up a candle and a lighter.  I took it from her and helped her out of the basket.  I made a quick head count and sighed when I ended at seven.

            "Okay, there's supposed to be twelve of us, where's the other five?" I asked.  People looked around, counted heads, looked back at me, and shrugged.  "Well, I guess they chickened out, we'll go on without –" I said, but was cut off by the familiar thump of a body in a basket.  Two bodies actually!  "Well hello, nice to see you again." I laughed, recognizing the little Asian girls.

            "Okay, well, that's nine, where are the other three?"  Just then, the remaining girls dropped out of their separate chutes and landed with a plop. "D, T, Auzzie; I should have known you guys would hold us up.  Okay, this is everyone, let's move out."

            The girls followed me to the right wall and waited as I tried to hit the board just right to switch the door.  Frustrated, I bent down and ripped the board away, revealing three carvings.  "What the? Well, I guess one of these is the switch, not the board.  This is Roman, " I said, pointing to a symbol of Janus.  "This one is from India, its Krishna, and "I explained, pointing to the second symbol.  "This one is Celtic, I think.  It must be Fenrir." I pointed to the last marking.

            I thought long and hard before each god's particular power became clear in my memory.  "Fenrir is a giant wolf god with no real specific power.  Krishna is a god that is the Indian true image of god, he can do anything.  And this, this is Janus, the spirit of doors and archways, this must be it." I laughed, gingerly pressing the coin shaped mark.  The wall slid back, just as it had before.  "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here until six!"

            Fire flipped on her flashlight and handed it to me.  I led the way down the passageway and stopped next to the stairs.  "I haven't explored this passage, so I don't know where anything goes, except those stairs.  Dane said they lead to the sixth floor.  Everything else is unknown territory, so stay close." I explained.

            It was about twenty minutes from the laundry room to the end of the passage.  I found Dane, waiting for us, leaning against a dead end wall.  "Hey, what happened to the door that was there last time?"

            "I closed it." Dane answered.  He gently smacked his heel against the bottom of the wall and it slid back, letting in blinding sunlight.  "So who's who here?" He asked, kicking the wall again to close it.  I introduced him to everyone and he nodded politely to everyone.  "Okay, who wants delicious deep-fried food?"

            From there, talking faded into the sounds of girls enjoying the meal.  Not long after meeting Dane at the exit, conversations picked back up, and I told Dane about the symbol of Janus.  After close inspection of the door we stood near, sure enough, the symbol was there.  The number one conversation topic with the girls was the secret passage.  Who made it, how many others were there, where did they go, why were they here, and so on and so forth.  All questions I wanted answered myself.

            Before heading out, we planned to map the secret paths.  To map it all, we needed to look for other entrances, other exits, and other destinations.  Everyday two of us would track passages, while the rest stayed outside and played, so no one would suspect.  One by one, we filtered outside, into the woods, and then emerged into the throng of girls.  That way no one would notice twelve extra girls in two minutes, and wonder where we'd been.

            I was the last to go out, after a long tender kiss from Dane, of course.  When Ms. Harper's whistle blew, we were exactly where we were supposed to be.  After dinner, which none of us ate really, I went up to my room and started mapping out the school, the dorms, the gym, and the grounds.  At eight, when I had mapped everything I knew, on four sheets of paper, I decided to tuck in early.  I pulled my book out of my underwear drawer, and curled up in bed.  These last few days had been too hectic for me to get a chance to write in my book.       


	8. Writer's Block

Chapter 8

            The next morning, I woke up, still holding my book, although my pencil had disappeared.  I had only written three pages before nodding off, but at least I had gotten something done.  My main character had gained some magical powers last night, and when I get another chance, she'll test them out.  I got up, got dressed, and hurried down to breakfast.  The girls were excited and were whispering quickly back and forth when I reached the table.

            They had already decided who would explore tunnels today; D and T.  I showed them the maps and explained that they should never split up and should leave a marker at the mouth of a passage so we would know it's already been mapped.  They took orders well and swore to remember every detail of any tunnel they explore.  I let them take the maps with them so when they got back they could map everything right away.  Dane had promised to come tonight so he could help finish the maps of any known passages.

            The day went just fine, and I was starting to get used to the long days and strict teachers.  I stopped by the library and traded my book for one on the occult.  Ms. Apple frowned, but she didn't say anything.  I noticed something seemed odd about the section on the middle ages, but I shrugged it off as nerves.  When school ended, I quickly went to my room and grabbed the thick leather bound book.

            I sat outside under a tree at the edge of the woods and tried to write, but something still seemed off.  The strangest thoughts kept popping into my head!  Thoughts like _where did the ball go_, _that looks awful dangerous_, and the strangest of all was _there she is, I found her, and now I'm going to teach that little bitch a lesson_.

            Rebecca towered over me, blocking my writing light.  "Well, well, hello skatergirl.  How's the shredding today?" She sneered.

                        I scooted myself out of her shadow, and kept writing, for I had hit a "inspiration bubble" as I call them, and couldn't let it go.  I just couldn't let anyone stop me from finishing this page; the dragon named Rocara had just appeared!  Rebecca stepped to the side to block my light again, and I looked up at her.  "Aw, that's cute, trying to ignore me.  I don't disappear that easily, kiddo." She laughed.  _What's she doing that's so interesting anyways?_  Before I could think of anything to say, for the cloud of that strange thought still hung over me, she bent down and snatched my book away.

            I jumped to my feet and tried to get my book back, but there was no use.  Rebecca was about a foot taller than me and held the book high in the air above her head.  "What's this, hmm?  Is this your diary, little baby?"

            "No," I growled. "It's not a diary.  My grandpa gave it to me, give it back!" I shouted, jumping futilely to reach the book.

            "Your grandpa gave it to you, isn't that sweet!"  _I wish my grandpa had given me something this nice, old coot._  "Let's see just what dear old grandpa gave you, hmm?" Rebecca taunted, flipping the book open and glancing at a couple of pages.  "Stories, huh?" _Wow, she's really spent a lot of time on this, it must mean quite a bit to her.  Perfect.  _"That's like lying, isn't it?  Well, at church, they say lying is bad, and we have to clean ourselves of our sins, so let's clean house, Liz!" Rebecca laughed.

            She turned to the very first page, stopped, and stared at it a moment.  _Look at this date; she's been working on this book for three years.  Why, she must've been in the sixth grade when she started this!  _She grabbed a whole chunk of the book, and before I could stop her, started ripping them out!  "NO!" I cried, but it was too late.  

            She had ripped the torn pages in half and tossed them to the ground.  _Pity, I'd rather just steal it, read it, and then destroy it, but she'd tell and I'd be in hot water for it.  _I jumped at her, but still couldn't get the book.  She continued ripping pages out, one by one now, just to torture me.  I felt as if I had betrayed myself, letting someone like her even breathe on that book, much less what she was doing now.

            _Help _I thought.  _Someone, anyone, please help me!  _Rebecca still ripped.  _Ms. Evy, _My brain pleaded, _Ms. Evy, please come, please help, make her stop, it's killing me!  Help!  _I couldn't hit her, it would do no good, all I could do was just stand there and watch years of my life float to the ground in tattered shreds.  Just then, I saw someone come around the side of the gym.  It was Ms. Evy!

            "Hey you, Rebecca Morgan, you stop that this instant!" Ms. Evy shouted, making her way down the hill and towards us as fast as she could.  Rebecca, in mid-tear, halfway through my book, stood stock-still.  A few moments later Ms. Evy reached us and grabbed Rebecca by the wrist.  "Just what do you think you're doing?" 

            "Um, Ms. Evy, I thought you went home for the day, what are you still doing here?" Rebecca stammered.

            "That has nothing to do with this, it makes no difference.  You know better than this!" Ms. Evy declared, gesturing to the torn pieces of my obsession scattered at our feet.  "You have no right to take Elizabeth's things, much less destroy them.  I'm reporting you to Ms. Harper first thing tomorrow morning, no ifs ands or buts.  And if I ever hear you've done anything like this again, I'll see to it you're expelled, is that clear?" She explained.

            "Yes ma'am." Rebecca mumbled.  She ran off to the patio, nearly in tears.  I sank to the ground and let my own run freely down my face.  I sniffed, trying to control myself, trying not to make a scene as I collected what was left of my book.  I gently laid the torn pages inside the front cover, noticing that the binding had been badly damaged because Rebecca had dropped it before running off.  

            "Liz, come on.  We'll go to my room and tape this back together until we can buy you another." Ms. Evy said, helping collect the pages.

            "You can't buy another one!" I bawled.

            She stopped and said, "Well why not?"  She looked at the page in her hands, and then she looked back at me, wide eyed.  "Liz, did you write this?"  I nodded silently and stood up.  Ms. Evy stood as well and we started to the school.  

            "So how long have you been writing?" She asked when we reached her classroom.  We spread the pages across her desk and started piecing the stories back together.  

            "Always.  I mean, my grandpa gave me this in the sixth grade, but only because I had already been writing stories at school.  He, um, he died not long after." I explained.  Ms. Evy nodded as if she understood.  We finished the taping in comfortable silence, only broken by the occasional need of assistance finding pieces that matched.

            "How are we going to put this back in the binding?" I asked.  Ms. Evy smiled, pulled a jar of rubber cement from her desk drawer and carefully applied it to the inside of the binding.  Then we pressed the binding to the pages with a book holding everything in line.  

            "There, good as new, almost." Ms. Evy sighed.

            "Ms. Evy, how did you happen to come along when you did?" I asked.

            "It's strange, I just felt that you needed me, that you were in trouble and needed my help." She replied, thoughtful.  "At first, I thought I was just being a worrywart, but then the sense grew stronger and I was positive something was wrong.  I swear I could hear you scream 'make her stop, it's killing me', isn't that strange?" Ms. Evy explained.

            "Yeah," I laughed nervously.  "That is weird."

            "What's the matter?" She asked, studying me closely.

            "Oh nothing.  I better get going, I don't want to be late to dinner.  See you Monday, Ms. Evy." I lied.  I hurried to the door, stopped just outside, and sent a message to her to test my theory.  Ms. Evy's high heels clicked across the floor as I headed outside.

            "Your grandfather's name was Frank?" She called, puzzled.  I stopped, nodded, and disappeared out the door.  I hurried to the dining hall for our evening meal and stashed my book in my room on the way.  I didn't want to take any more risks with it.  After dinner, I took my time up the stairs to my room, silently praying I would walk in, and the damage to my book would be erased.

            I sighed when the book sat just where I'd left it, exactly how I'd left it.  I gently picked it up and slid it into the bottom drawer of my dresser.  I sat down to a dull evening of reading when it occurred to me I hadn't checked on Double Trouble.  I hopped up, went to T's room and knocked lightly on the door.  D answered it and stepped aside to let me in.  

            Monica was pouring over the maps making quick short lines, sketching out a tunnel off the known one.  Dane, of all people, poked his head out of the closet, spotted me, and smiled.  "Hi, I, uh, I came to help finish the maps.  How are you, where ya been?" He stumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

            "I'm good, you?" I replied.  He shrugged and smiled again.  "So, how goes the mapping?  Why didn't you come find me when you got back?" I asked.  Monica finally looked up, and waved me over to see the map.

            "It's going good, Liz.  I didn't want to bother you after what Rebecca did, so I sent Dane a note so we could get some of this done." She explained.  "I'm really sorry about what happened, Liz.  I would have beat her bloody if I had gotten there sooner.  Next time she even looks at you, I'll knock her teeth out, I promise." She threatened, punching an invisible opponent in front of her.  

            "Thanks, I think, but don't get yourself in trouble for me." I replied, taken aback.  The fact that she felt so strongly after only one week was touching.  And she didn't even know how much the book meant to me!

            "No problem, Liz, it's what we do.  Harpy's stick together." T laughed.

            "Hey," Dane said, softly touching my shoulder, "what happened?  What's she talking about?"

            "Oh nothing, I'll tell you later." I breezed, but he looked genuinely concerned.  "I'm fine."  He let it drop, but I knew the second we were alone, he'd say something.  For now, we concentrated on the maps and made a schedule of exploration.  Tomorrow, LA and FBI would track tunnels, then the twins, then Auzzie and Fire, the Shadow and Ice, the Cara and me.  

            At eight, we ended our planning and Dane and I snuck back to my room.  Once the door was closed, he cornered me, practically jumping down my throat saying, "What happened today?"

            "Don't freak out, I just had a run-in with Rebecca Morgan." I said meekly.  A few tears glided silently down my cheeks at the mental picture of her, tearing my book apart.  "She only hurt my book."

            "Your book?" Dane asked, following my gaze to the dresser.  "Show me."

            "Well, it's like this: I write stories.  Not for any good reason, just for me.  A few years back, my grandpa gave me a book to put all my stories in.  That's what Rebecca got a hold of." I explained, going to the dresser and pulling out the book.  "I protested, therefore she destroyed it."

            "Oh Liz, I'm sorry.  At least she didn't hit you." Dane attempted to console me.

            "That would have been better than this!" I nearly screeched.  "I would've healed, the book won't!"

            "Liz, calm down, it's alright.  Shh, don't be childish, it looks fine to me." He chided.  _All this over a book?  _I reached over and opened the book to a random page, gritting my teeth to keep from hitting him for such a thought.  Wait, that's it, his thought, not mine!

            Suddenly I felt weak, thinking about all the strange thoughts that had seemed to worm their way into my mind, thinking I must be going crazy.  No, they weren't my random thoughts; they were someone else's thoughts that had gotten inside my brain.  In the car, on the way to Carson the day before yesterday, when I'd thought Dane had said something about me without my clothes.  Then today, I thought I'd heard Rebecca say she'd found me, then she'd been astonished by the date in my book, then wishing she could read it.  I could read minds!

            "Okay, now that's pretty bad, what did you say to that girl?"

            "Nothing." I whined.  "And she still took it as an insult."

            "Hush now." Dane scolded gently.  "Okay, it's Friday night, the only night of the week the town's wide open to visitors.  Why don't you wash your face, get yourself all dolled up, and we'll go have some fun, huh?"  I nodded, feeble, and shuffled to the bathroom, still slightly shocked at my new theory.  "Alrighty then, I'll find you something to wear, and we'll get going."

            I washed my face and tied my long brown hair back in a ballet bun.  A little glitter, hairspray, and lipstick lifted my spirits.  A few minutes later, Dane handed me a pair of patchwork jeans, a red sparkly V-neck top, and a leather jacket through a barely opened door.  _Jeez, it's not like I'm going to force myself on her.  _I slipped into the outfit, chuckling at his thoughts, and stepped out of the bathroom for inspection.  He laughed half heartedly as I jumped into my shoes and swung myself into the already open laundry chute.

            It was 8:30 when we got to Dane's car.  We had to push it down the drive so no one would hear the engine start.  He took me to a club on the south end of town and we ran into a few of his friends there.  The music was deafening, something I was grateful for because I couldn't hear my own thoughts much less anyone else's.  The lights were enough to make you dizzy and the smoke machine made the whole scene seem to dance through clouds.  Dane introduced me to a few townie girls he knew; Jess, Vicky T, and Andrea.

            "Hey, wassup?" Vicky asked, shouting in my ear to be heard.

            "Nothin' much, you?" I replied.

            "I'm five by five." She shrugged.

            "So, Dane tells us you're a Harpy, that's cool." Jess said bluntly.  "So, what'd you do?"

            I looked at Dane, who shrugged, and then back at the girls we were dancing with.  "Just this and that.  Nothing that cool." I brushed.

            "Just ignore her, the rest of us do.  She doesn't know how to say anything politely." Andrea laughed.  "Not an ounce of tact, to save her soul."

            "Tact is useless, you pussy-foot around the obvious until someone decides to bring up what you're all thinking.  It's stupid." Jess argued.  "So, have you guys done anything yet?" 

            "Uh, why don't I buy you lovely ladies some drinks, huh?" Dane interrupted, swooping in to my rescue.

            "I'll take that as a yes." Jess snipped.  _As far as I can tell, he's already popped her cherry, if she had it to begin with._

            I turned on her, cold rage pulsing inside me, and sent her a very clear message.  She looked at me, positively shocked, and shook her head violently.  "Liz, why don't you come and help me carry them?" Dane insisted.  I nodded, catching on to his plan.  "Sorry about that, they've just been dieing to meet you, but I don't want to leave you alone with those three, especially Jess." He explained, paying for the drinks.  We went to a nearby table and the girls soon joined us for a much needed break. 

            "So Vicky, what do you do when you're not here or school?" I asked, breaking the silence.

            "I read a lot." She replied.

            "Oh really, I love to read.  What do you read?"

            "Romance."

            "Yeah, she reads those trashy little paperback novels." Jess added, butting in.  _I wonder if she's finished that one she's been reading, so I can borrow it._

            "From the looks of it, so do you." I chuckled, meeting Jess's gaze.

            "How can you tell?" She gasped.

            "Call it a sixth sense, if you will." I replied mildly.

            "What do I like to read, Elizabeth?" Andrea asked, testing me.  _Let's see, what do I read; I read romance, and historical fiction, and mystery, and sometimes fantasy…_

            "Well, it's hard to say, because, from the looks of it, you read a little bit of everything.  Most of the time you read romance, probably hard bound tasteful stuff like Nicolas Sparks, but you do read some mystery, a little fantasy, and sometimes even historical fiction." I replied slowly.  She stared at me wide eyed a moment, and then seemed to snap out of her daze.  

            "Oh yeah, well, what does Dane read?" Andrea asked.  I turned to Dane a moment and studied him.

            "He reads fiction, science fiction, horror, mystery, fantasy, and, and, and mythology." I stuttered, laughing.  "I love mythology!"  The night continued without another hitch.

            After the club, Dane drove the car out of town, towards home, but turned down a dirt road instead, mumbling the whole way about that being one of his biggest secrets and how amazing I was to tell that from just looking.  "Where are we going?" I asked, but he just smiled.  A few minutes later, a mountain appeared just ahead of us.  Dane pulled the car up alongside the imposing mass and hopped out.  "What are we doing here?"

            "We're climbing this!" He answered.  "They call it the Carson Pyramid.  Come on, Liz!" He called from a quarter of the way up.  I hurried to catch up with him and he continued his story.  "Most sensible folks around here say this is where they dumped the stuff they dug out of the mines when this place was a mining town, but I've never seen the mines, and no one I know has."

            The rest of the hike up was quiet because we had to concentrate on climbing.  The whole thing was loose sand and if you stepped wrong, it slid out from under you.  We reached the peak twenty minutes later, huffing and puffing for air.  I collapsed beside Dane and just lay there a moment.  "Wow!" I breathed, sitting up and seeing the sparkling lights below. 

            "Yeah, you can see the whole town from here." Dane sighed, pulling me under his arm.

            "It's beautiful." I agreed contently.

            "I thought you might like it."

            "I do." I smiled.  I turned and kissed him soundly.  He responded immediately, wrapping his arms around me.  We kissed hungrily, greedily, devouring each other.  He ravished my mouth excruciatingly slow, and before I knew it, his hand was at the hem of my shirt.

            He ran his hand up my side beneath my shirt, and then slid his hand around front to cup me.  I sighed against his mouth and he dipped one finger beneath the fabric of my bra, barely grazing my nipple.  It seemed like forever before we withdrew from each other, lungs screaming for breath.  I hissed out mine and righted my shirt and hair.  Dane smiled, stood up, offered me a hand, and we headed back to the car.

            We pushed the car up the drive and into the parking lot.  I tiptoed back to the dorms around 1:30 and was met at my door by Elsa.  She tapped her foot in disgust and pointed to the bed.  I hung my head, closed the door, and crossed the room to sit down.  "Elsa, I'm sorry.  I won't ever do it again." I began.

            "No, you won't.  You're very lucky, do you know that?  Rebecca made her rounds at nine and was on her way to declare your absence to Ms. Harper when I ran into her.  I vowed to tell Ms. Harper for her, but I did not.  Do you know why?" Elsa demanded.  I shook my head, eyes downcast.

            "Because I believe in second chances, that's why.  This is a warning, the only one you'll be getting.  Any more word of your abominable schemes and Ms. Harper will hear about it, understand?" Elsa explained.  I nodded my head and she was out the door, down the hall, quiet as a mouse.


	9. Rebecca Morgan

Chapter 9

            The next day, I got to sleep until 8:30, which was perfect since I didn't turn in until two.  At 8:30, I hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, dressed, and headed down to breakfast.  The girls were oddly silent, like they were angry or something.

            "Good morning, Liz, feeling well?" Auzzie asked stiffly.

            "Yeah, hey, you guys missed quite a time last night, but it wouldn't of been fair to take only some, and we're certainly not all going to fit in Dane's car." I laughed.  Eleven fuming faces met mine.

            "We would have found other means, Liz.  Nice to know you're one of us." FBI said bitterly.

            "We would've gotten caught, that many of us." I replied.

            "You still got caught, Liz!  And now we have to do bed clothes, windows, and bathrooms!" Cara retorted.  "You could've at least taken us with you so the extra chores we're doing would be our fault.  You got in trouble and we got work.  See the difference?"

            "Aww, come on you guys, I'll take you next time, I swear." I pleaded.

            "There won't be a next time, Liz.  You don't get it, do you?  You got a warning.  That means if you sneak out again, you're expelled!  We can go, you can't." Shadow spit angrily.  "And since it's your boyfriend doing the driving, we can get out of the building, but not to town."

            The girls promptly got up, bussed their trays, and disappeared into the school.  I followed a few moments later when the bell rang, and I prepared myself for a long day.  First class of the day was Arts and Crafts.  I sat down at my table and sourly watched Ms. Virtuoso come in and drop her bag next to her desk as she did everyday.  Today, we made paper, and I prayed Choir would be more interesting.

            When the bell rang, I made my way to Mrs. Samson's room.  She spent the hour ranting and screaming until I wanted a bullet to my brain just to end it.  LA, FBI, D, T, and Cara spent the hour seeing if spitballs would stick in my hair.  And the winning answer is yes, spit balls stick to hair.  I spent ten minutes of lunch picking them out.  I endured a lunch with company as cold as at breakfast.

            Coach Jones never gets angry.  A quality I was quite thankful for when, accidentally, I ended up the only person on my team, ten on the other, and suddenly I had no more balls, in dodge ball.  We swam a few laps in the pool before he blew the whistle for us to get our stuff together.  Coach patted me on the shoulder as I walked past, sympathy in his eyes.  _Poor thing, I wonder if the whole school is mad at her, though I can't imagine what she did._

            On my way out, it seemed that several of my classmates had gathered in a small circle beside the pool.  I pushed my way to the center through whispers to see what they were looking at, and a big hand came down and tightly grasped my shoulder, spinning me to face them.  "Hi Rebecca, how's it going?" I stuttered, looking up into her very angry eyes.

            "You got me three weeks detention and kitchen duty for a month!" She spat.  "And you're going to pay for it!"  With that, Rebecca knocked the wind out of me with a fist to the gut.  I doubled over and groaned.  She grabbed me by the hair and wrenched me up to face her.  The last thing I saw was her smirk, and her fist, speeding forward to meet my mouth.

            I tasted blood and landed with a splash.  The next thing I knew, Coach Jones was staring down at me, a strange look on his face.  _Oh God, thank you God, she's okay, I really didn't want a kid to die on my clock, but she's okay.  _I rolled over and coughed until my stomach held no more water.  I tried to sit up but Coach held me down and gently, ever so gently, dabbed my mouth with a wet cloth.  Finally, he let me sit up, but not without bracing me, just in case.

            My head spun a little, but I shook it away.  "You gave me quite a scare, Ms. Parker.  You were near the bottom of the pool when I found you.  Are you feeling okay now?" Coach asked.  I nodded weakly.

            "Now, tell me what happened?  When I last saw you, you were swimming like a fish, so I know you didn't get tired and slip under.  And I sure know you didn't give yourself a bloody lip and a knockout.  So, lay it on me, Elizabeth.  How did you end up at the bottom of the pool, fully clothed, with a fat lip?" Coach asked, giving me a stern look.

            "Rebecca Morgan." I whispered.

            "I oughta tan her hide for this." He said indignant.

            "No Coach, don't get her in trouble, that's how this all started." I begged, gingerly prodding my sore lip.  "You see, she tore up my book, I got her in trouble for it, and then she came to take her punishment out on me.  If you yell at her, she'll just knock my teeth in." I explained.  

            "You sure about that?  I mean, she might just keep raggin' on you if you don't do something about it, but I don't mean violence." Coach asked, concerned.

            "I'm sure, Coach.  Just give me a minute to breathe and I'll be fine." I sighed decidedly.

            "Okay then, put yourself together, and for God's sake, don't let her see you take it so hard on the chin.  Hurry on to your room before anyone sees you wet and bleeding." Coach sighed, giving me a nudge.  I nodded and turned to go, but Coach caught me real quick.  He handed me my books, which I had safely left on the bleachers, and smiled weakly.  I silently took them, careful not to press them against my wet body, and ran off at a sprint.  I miraculously made it to my room without seeing any teachers, Ms. Harper, Elsa, or Rebecca.  I did, however, run into Cara.

            "Sorry Cara, didn't see you there." I blurted out.

            "Gee, thanks, Liz.  Not only am I not good enough for the club, I'm not good enough to be seen." Cara spat.  "And I thought you were different, what a joke!"  I stared at the ground; I couldn't look at her when she was that angry.  She was silent a moment, then said, "Jesus, Liz, what happened, did you have a fight with the shower?"  Water dripped off the tip of my nose and landed on the thick wine colored carpet covering the hall floor.  

            "More like Rebecca Morgan." I confessed softly.

            "Jeez, what happened this time, what did you do?" Cara asked.

            "She got in trouble for tearing up my book, so she took it out on my lip." I explained.  I gently prodded my lip again.  "A jab to the stomach, then one to the face was enough to knock me out and into the pool."

            "Oh Liz, that's got to be enough to get her suspended at least." She rejoiced.

            "I'm not going to tell, Cara, she'll just come back and do her worst to me, and I'm tired of it.  No more, I'm done trying to make myself known to this school.  From now on, I'm just going to sit down, shut up, and disappear." I said firmly.

            "Liz, how long were you in the pool?" Cara asked curiously.

            "I don't know, I blacked out, but I had the strangest feeling of peace, like everything was fine.  I swear, I saw myself floating down there from above, like it was someone else at the bottom of the pool." I stated, a small, strangled idea forming in my mottled mind.  

            "Liz," Cara drawled, "are you okay?"  She stared at me queerly.  I did my best to shake away the cloud in my head and nodded.  Cara seemed to relax, smiled at me, and said, "Liz, I'm sorry we all got so mad at you, we were just upset you went without us.  Finding out what's happening to you is more important than some stupid club."  Just like that, the tiff was over, and we walked down the hall to my room.

            "Um, about that Cara, boy have I got some news for you!" I laughed, closing my bedroom door.  I told her the whole story of what happened after Rebecca destroyed my book, the thoughts not my own in my head, and my own thoughts on it.  She listened intently, jotting something down every now and then as I paced the room drying my hair with a towel.  When I'd finished, Cara gave me a minute to put on dry clothes, then promised to research the phenomenons.  She left silently, gently squeezing my hand before she did, and I collapsed on the bed.


	10. Visions

Chapter 10

            I don't remember falling asleep, but the next thing I knew, I was thrown into a frightening dream.  I was standing at the side of the pool, staring down at myself, listlessly floating at the bottom.  Then the world melted away and I was standing in a dimly lit stone corridor.  A plain black statue of a strange creature that resembled a woman with a lion's head sat before me on a pedestal.  I reached out to touch the statue, but my surroundings melted away again, and I landed with a jolt into the darkness.

            Once my eyes adjusted to the lighting, I realized I was now standing in a room filled with books.  It seemed to be a small section of the library, but which I was unsure.  The books were all the same mute tone, except for one, which glowed an odd red color.  An unseen hand lifted it off the shelf in front of me and the whole bookcase swung back as if on a hinge, revealing a passageway masked in black.  Then, once again, everything melted away, leaving me alone, but not for long.

            Someone was here, with me, in this pitch-black place.  I couldn't see them, but I felt them, I knew it, I sensed that someone was there.  "Who's there?" I called into the darkness.  A rich, velvety chuckle answered me.  "Who's there?" I repeated dumbly.

            "You are not yet ready to know that, Elizabeth." A man said, in the same rich, velvety voice.

            "Where are we?" I asked, looking around, unable to see whom I was talking to.

            "Nowhere, yet everywhere." He answered.  "This is nothingness.  Absolute, unrestricted, complete nothingness.  Do you like it?"

            "No, no, I really don't.  Who are you and why are you here?" I replied, shaken.

            "That's a pity.  Oh well, you'll grow into it.  I have already answered your first question, Elizabeth, but, as for the second, that's simple; I'm here because you are." He replied.

            "Okay, that doesn't help." I muttered.  "If you're here because I am, why am I here?"

            "It is your destiny, Elizabeth.  You are to come to power in the near future and I am to help you make the choice." He answered.

            "How do you know my name? Why can't I see you?" I asked, completely unnerved.  

            "I have known your name since the beginning of time.  When I first drew breath, I knew your name, even before I knew my own.  It is a part of my being." He said.

            "Okay, that's creepy beyond all get-out.  What about my second question, why can't I see you?" I muttered.

            "You cannot see me, because I wish it so.  This is my world, of which I am the ruler, and you are merely a peasant.  The vision of my true self would terrify you into never-ending despair.  Do you still wish to see?" He inquired.

            "Uh, well, yes and no."

            "Choose!  I will show myself to you if you wish it.  I can disguise myself, if you'd prefer that." He said.

            "Yes, that's perfect.  If you're so ugly you'll scare the crap out of my, I'd rather see you as something else." I replied.

            "What shall I be?"

            "A person, whoever you want to be, just as long as I can look at you face to face." I answered.

            "As you wish, Elizabeth." Said the man solemnly.  Out of the 'nothingness', as he called it, stepped a tall, dark man who looked exactly like the actor who plays Angel on TV.  He smiled at me and said, "Is this better?"

            "How did you know he's my favorite guy on TV?" I asked, looking him in the eye.

            "I know because I know you, Elizabeth.  I know your dreams, desires, thoughts, wishes, and nightmares." My Angel answered.

            "How do you know all that?" I questioned.  My Angel took a step closer, so he was standing inches from me, making my blood boil, my heart slamming in my chest unfamiliarly, his hot breath in my ear.

            "I know, because they are my dreams, desires, thoughts, wishes, and nightmares, too.  I feel what you feel, when and where you feel it." He whispered in my ear, drawing circles on my neck with his tongue.

            "Why are you doing this to me?" I croaked as he nibbled on my earlobe.

            "Because you want me to, Elizabeth.  Because you let me.  Because you need me." He whispered.  I mustered all my strength and shoved him away as hard as I could.  My Angel laughed, grinned, and turned serious again in the blink of an eye.

            "Stop it.  I am not a toy to be played with.  This is a dream, it must be, and I'll just wake up.  I don't need you, I don't need anybody.  You're a figment of my twisted imagination and I can control you.  Besides, even if this is real, I don't need your help to choose anything, I'm a big girl." I yelled at him.  He laughed again, a full, rich, velvety laugh that chilled me to the core.

            "Okay Liz, go somewhere nicer than this place, somewhere warmer and brighter and far away from here, wherever the hell here is.  Wake up!" I shouted at myself through his constant laughter, somewhat hyperventilating.  "Wake up!  WAKE UP!

            "You cannot leave, silly girl!  I am your master now, you belong to me.  You must obey me, you must do my bidding." He commanded.

            "Since when?" I snorted.

            "Since you came here and disturbed my place of thought!" He bellowed.

            "I didn't mean to, you brought me here!" I bellowed back.

            "You brought yourself here, and I wish you to stay!" He laughed.

            "How?" I gasped.

            "You wished to be here, you wished for answers to your newfound skills, and wish granted.  You should be grateful, bow before me, you sniveling twit.  There are consequences to every wish, Elizabeth, and these are yours." He explained.  "But it's not that bad, if you think about it, darling.  You can either serve me here forever, or become my queen and rule with me."

            "What, in this place?" I snorted again.

            "For now, yes, but soon, we will have our own kingdom, and the earth itself will bow at our feet!" He laughed.

            "No thanks."

            "Then you will serve me forever."

            "No!" I screamed.  "No!  I am my own person.  No one owns me; not you, not that idiot Brock, nobody!"

            "I own you!  Your mine, girl!  Come, serve me, do my bidding, Elizabeth!  It is your destiny!"

            "No!" I screamed again.  "Never!  Go away!  Leave me alone! Leave me alone!"

            "Liz, Liz, snap out of it!  Wake up, wake up, girl!" Someone said, shaking me.  At first the voice was muffled, then, clear as a bell, then I could hear more voices.  Voices saying, "Shut her up!" and "For God's sake, stop screaming, Liz!"  Soon, I realized who those voices belonged to; Cara, Monica, and Laura.

            I sat up straight in bed, panting for breath, and looking around me.  The same old bed in the same old room surrounded by the same old things.  No sign of a strange statue, a secret passage, or a terrifying power crazed man.  The girls standing beside my bed looked disturbed, groggy, maybe even worried.  I sighed and let myself fall back to the still-made bed, pulling at the collar of my sweater.

            "What happened, Liz?" Cara asked quietly.

            "Just a nightmare, Cara, that's all.  Nothing to worry about." I lied.

            "We're not worried," T teased, gently punching my leg.  "Just sleepy."

            "You could wake the dead with those pipes, woman!" LA laughed.

            "Are you going to be okay?" Cara asked.

            "Yeah, I'll be fine.  I'll just read myself back to sleep, no more nightmares, I promise.  Go on, go back to bed." I replied, brushing off the chill I still had from the dream.  I looked over at the clock and winced.  It was nearly two!


	11. Church?

Chapter 11

            The girls mumbled their good nights, and headed back to their rooms.  I got up, changed into my pjs, climbed into bed with a book about dead civilizations, and slept soundly the rest of the night.  I woke up the next morning to a slight tickle on my face.  I jerked, sat up, and looked to see Dane, sitting on the floor next to my bed.  I smiled at him, he grinned his now familiar lopsided grin, and I settled back on the bed.

            "Hey." I whispered, my voice somewhat hoarse.  "What are you doing here?"

            "I just came to see you, babe." He replied, tracing the bridge of my nose.  "Where were you yesterday, I thought we might do something?"

            "I had another run-in with Rebecca Morgan." I replied.  I told him the story, carefully omitting the emotions of a near-death experience.  I explained how I'd fallen asleep, accidentally, of course, and didn't wake up until it was way too late.  Cara burst in through the bathroom door, and stopped dead when she saw Dane sitting there.

            "Liz, what are you doing, we've got church in an hour?" Cara asked.

            "Church?" I asked.

            "Yeah, church.  Ms. Harper thinks for us to become proper young women, we need God in our lives." She answered, taking on the air Ms. Harper carried with here.

            "Shoot, how much time do I have before breakfast?" I asked, jumping out of bed and making for the closet.

            "Two hours." Cara answered, nonchalant.  "We eat breakfast after church.  It's the only day of the week we go to town, and since all the help gets Sundays off, we eat in town in the church basement with the congregation."

            "Well, what do I wear?" I whined, flustered beyond reason.  Dane, who had been chuckling through the whole scene, broke out in laughter at this last exchange.  "What's so funny?" I demanded.

            He quelled the outburst, cleared his throat, and said, "Nothing."

            "That's what I thought." I huffed.

            "Liz, wear your uniform, calm down, take a shower, quick, mind you, brush you teeth, and meet me in the hall, okay?" Cara replied.  "Dane, get yourself down the chute and out of the dormitories before we leave for church, so nobody sees you, okay?"  Dane and I mumbled our 'yes ma'ams' and he quickly departed.  Cara's take-charge attitude this morning surprised me, but then again, it seemed our whole floor did follow her lead most of the time.  I followed my orders to the letter and found Cara waiting in the hall when I emerged twenty minutes later.

            "Church starts at nine, and the bus leaves in about…" She said, checking her watch, and then her eyes got big and she said, "One minute!  Go Liz, run!"  I thought she was teasing, until she sprinted down the hall!  I ran after her, down the stairs, through the foyer, and out onto the front drive.  We just made it to catch seats on the second bus, moments before the doors closed.

            We made it to church in twenty minutes and were seated at the back, taking up nearly half the place.  Someone giggled and Ms. Harper snapped her head around, giving the girl a stern look from the pew in front of us.  Elsa turned too, but with a different expression merely placing a finger to her lips.  The church was most likely the biggest in town, and from the songs they sang, obviously Catholic.  The place was something right out of the Middle Ages, complete with the castle style architecture and the chanting priests.

            It was truly a beautiful church, full of stained glass windows depicting biblical stories, lantern lights and fans hanging from the peak of the high vaulted ceiling, but that wasn't the half of it.  The walls were bare brick tucked behind statues, candles, and flowers, but the ceiling, oh the ceiling was glorious!  Every inch of it was covered with brightly colored paintings done with the most skilled hand this world has ever known!  Each different picture was outlined with gold Latin scrawl, most likely describing what was happening in the picture.  Michelangelo and his Sistine Chapel would have bowed down to the feet of this painter at the sight of his work! 

            I couldn't help but stare, guessing what story each picture depicted, doing my best to translate what little Latin I knew.  Someone snapped his or her fingers at me, and I looked over to see a very angry Ms. Harper staring at me.  I lowered my eyes and joined in the whispered prayers, but still my mind wandered to the ceiling high above me and the painter who did it all.  After church, the other girls and I trudged down the stairs behind the door in the front right corner of the church.  The smell of sugar, flour, fruit, and coffee greeted our senses at the bottom of the carpeted steps. 

            Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were no shabby deal at Harper's School for Girls, in fact, I secretly enjoyed my Harpy meals, but this was a true banquet.  Elsa directed us to five separate tables, one for each floor, and pointed out the buffet.  I grabbed a plate and started carefully selecting pastries, wary of Ms. Harper's gaze.

            "You can have whatever you want." Cara whispered over her shoulder from in front of me.  "As much of whatever you want, too!"

            "Really?  Even coffee?" I gushed.

            "Really, really, especially coffee!" She answered.  I looked around and suddenly saw it all in a new light.  I saw apple strudel sticks, chocolate covered donuts, every kind of fruit possible cut in bite-sized pieces, coffee, milk, orange juice, cut pieces of all sorts of pie, and brownies.  I piled my plate high with pastries and fruit, and filled my cup to the brim with coffee.  I walked carefully back to my seat and ate as much as I could, along with three cups of coffee.  The other girls were just as bad if not worse; at least I was eating fruit.

            I went back to the buffet and collected pastries that didn't have icing on top, and quickly wrapped brownies, cookies (six different kinds), and apple strudel sticks, my favorite, in napkins and stuffed them in my pockets.  I grabbed one last Styrofoam cup of coffee on the way out the door, it would have to last me a week.  At eleven, we reluctantly shuffled onto the buses and the entire school must've sighed at the sight of the church disappearing behind us.  We made good time back to the school and shuffled sadly off the bus.  I followed Cara up the stairs to the second floor and moseyed to my room.

            "Hi." I mumbled, sensing Dane behind me as I closed the door.

            "How was church?" He asked.

            "The service was dull, but the church itself was nice." I sighed.  I plopped down on the bed beside him, offered him a brownie, which he accepted enthusiastically, and described the church to him.

            "It sounds beautiful, Liz." He agreed.  "Which church was it?"

            "The big Catholic one near the city limits on the east side." I replied.  He nodded thoughtfully, and then mumbled something about asking Sam.  Sam, or Samantha as we know her, was Dane's aunt and one of the help that takes care of our rooms.  Sometimes, we would find little boxes of chocolates, candy or bubblegum wrapped between the bedclothes, or hidden in our closets.  For this small kindness, among others, we loved Samantha, and trusted her with all our secrets.  She could make a drab, bare room seem warm and cozy simply by changing the comforter, shower curtain, or adding a flower clock instead of the classic gold one.

            "So, you want to do something?" He asked.

            "I've got homework." I grumbled.

            "Well, look at you, being the good little studious church-goer.  Your settling right in, aren't you?" Dane teased.

            "Shut up, it's World History, which I like, and it's easy." I retorted irritably.

            "Alright, alright, easy there, tiger.  I'll tell you what, you stay here and do your homework, and I'll bring you some food for thought." He replied.  I nodded and watched him disappear into the closet floor.  I sat down at the little table and breathed in the fresh fragrant flowers in the vase in front of me.  _Samantha must have been here I_ thought when I discovered the box of gobstoppers taped to the underside of the table.

            I pried the gobstoppers off the table and set them beside my history book.  I opened my book to the chapter we were supposed to do, opened my thesaurus to nothing in particular, and took out my paper to work on.  I was supposed to read the chapter, answer the questions in complete sentences, then write and essay.  The essay was about if you could be anyone from the chapter, who would you be, and why.  I finished the questions in ten minutes flat, but I was clueless about the essay because the chapter was on great leaders of the past.  They all lived, ruled, conquered, and died untimely deaths.

            At one, half the gobstoppers were gone, I'd broken my pencil, twice, but the essay was finished.  I put away my things in a tidy stack, careful not to smear my paper.  I sat for a moment, just resting after the brain-wracking assignment, then kneeled before my dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer.  I pushed aside pajamas and under things and ever so gently, lifted my book out.  I ran my fingers over the not-so-perfect cover and binding, closed the drawer, carried the book to my bed, and settled in to write, waiting for Dane to return.

            I wrote four or five pages before I dozed off.  I woke at five, rolled over, and cursed myself when I spotted the fast food bag on my nightstand.  Dane had come and gone, leaving me alone with cold, greasy food.  I grabbed the bag, peeked inside, and smiled.  A BLT, no mayo, just the way I like it, curly fries, and a large vanilla shake.

            I scarfed down the cold, but delicious food, tidied myself, ran downstairs, outside, and around the side to join the ranks.  Some of the girls on my floor glared at me a bit, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.  Cara, in mid-sentence, spotted me, smiled, and continued her conversation.  When she'd finished her train of thought, she sauntered over to me and half hugged me.  We hung out in the shade near the fence, just talking, and tossing a ball back and forth, for nearly an hour, until Ms. Harper blew her whistle.

            At dinner, I carefully, so as not to be seen, unwrapped twelve of my hidden sweets and nonchalantly dropped one on every tray.  The girls stared at the treats, then at me, as if I had given them my last penny.

            "We took some ourselves, we don't need yours." LA said.

            "I know, I saw you." I replied.

            "Then, why are you giving us yours?" T asked.

            "Because I want to." I answered.

            "What about you?" D asked.

            "I can get more next Sunday." I said simply.

            "Are you sure?" FBI asked.

            "Are you still mad at me?" I asked.

            "Is this a bribe?" Shadow asked.

            "That depends." I replied.

            "On what?" Ice demanded.

            "If it'll work." I sighed.  With that the war was over.  The girls eyed their treats a minute, and then shoveled them into their mouths, just in case someone saw us, rather unladylike too.  I ate my brownie, smiled at the girls, and then we quietly finished our dinners and bussed our trays.  We trudged up the stairs as a whole, after chore assignments, said our good nights, and dispelled to our separate rooms.


	12. Surprises

Chapter 12

            I slept soundly, the first time really since coming to that wretched school.  The next month or so flew by as if in a dream and I watched the late summer trees turn red, brown, and gold.  I felt the warm humid air chill and the days became shorter.  There were more days spent moping inside, hiding from rain and cold, than outside, playing in the sunshine.  It was mid-October, the time of bewitching drawing nearer All Hallo's Eve.

            Math, Science, Gym, and Choir continued without incident or regard to the date.  Spanish class made masks of skeletons and talked about "El Dia de los Muertos", the day of the dead.  World History, with Ms. Evy, talked about what other cultures did on Halloween or around the same time.  English class read spooky poems like Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee".  Arts and Crafts made shadow boxes of Halloween scenes, along with other such things.  October twenty-ninth passed, drawing the thirtieth and thirty-first ever nearer.

            It was Thursday, the thirtieth, and, as we normally did those dreary days, we were sitting inside.  With our backs against our doors, and butts on the thick carpeting, we talked and invented ways to pass the time.  One of our favorite time-killers was to go around, admitting something we would never do, then, if one of us had actually done it, we had to toss a piece of clothing to the floor.  We unconsciously dragged in out so no one would lose something important if Elsa happened to pass.  But the game grew dull quickly, and we started wandering off on our own, reappearing in time for dinner.

            I worked adamantly with Ms. Evy after school to learn to control whatever it was that I had.  Ms. Evy said it was telepathy, I thought it was her reading my mind, not me sending something to her.  I learned how to turn the mind reading off and on, so I could hear myself think again.  Because of a lack of outside activity, I didn't have anymore run –ins with Rebecca Morgan.  The girls continued mapping the tunnels, revealing six fresh ones, all leading deep into the building, heading down into the ground, but there was no sign of a black statue.  I had broken down and told Cara of the dream, and she continued searching the library for a passage long after I'd given up hope.

            Bore as I was that day, I walked with Cara to her room, and lingered just inside the door.  "Cara," I began, "how did you burn down your old school?"

            "Whoa, where'd that come from?" Cara laughed.

            "Well, you just never talk about it, that's all." I shrugged.

            "Promise you won't tell the other girls?  I sort of made something up to sound cool to them." She replied.

            "I promise." I agreed.

            "Well, some of the girls said I was geeky, I didn't belong there, because I was new.  So, to prove them wrong, I took the offered cigarette, took a big drag, and blew it back at them." Care said, smoking an invisible smoke.

            "What'd they do?" I asked, chuckling at the idea of showing someone up.

            "They walked off!  As soon as they were gone, I coughed and gagged, and threw the cigarette in the trash.  The trash caught fire, then the whole bathroom, then the storage room next door.  I had no idea what was going on when they evacuated the building and fire trucks rolled in.  The fire department put it out, but not before a large piece went up in smoke, and they concluded the fire originated in the ladies' room trashcan.  Those girls who first gave me the smoke, ratted me out in a heartbeat when offered the chance to retake the midterms they flunked, and the next thing I know, I'm here." She explained.  A variety of emotions played across her face, the most obvious being grief.

            "Wow, tough break Cara." I sighed.  "Hey, I know what'll cheer you up.  How 'bout some music?  I'll sing, not well, but nobody's perfect, and you can join in when you want."

            Cara looked around, as if someone might be watching us, and then she whispered, "Can I show you somethin'?" 

            "Yeah, sure, what is it?" I asked.  She got up, tiptoed to the closet, and slid first one door, then the other, back.  She pushed aside what little clothes she had, mostly ballet costumes she wouldn't part with, and there, tucked behind her things, sat an acoustic guitar, leaning against the wall.  I hopped up and crossed the room to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and then I said, "Cara, it's beautiful!  Where'd you get it?"

            "My dad gave it to me when I was nine.  I was never very good, but he said I had potential.  He said it would make me famous someday, as soon as I learned." Cara answered, stroking its wooden side.  She picked it up and carried it gently back to the bed.

            "That's so nice, Cara.  Play something for me!" I replied.

            "I'm not very good, I haven't practiced in months." She sighed.

            "Why not?" I asked.

            "I've been afraid of getting caught."

            "There's no one around, just us.  The other girls probably wandered off long ago and Elsa's downstairs setting tables." I whispered.

            "Alright, but if it's bad, don't say I didn't warn you." Cara agreed.  She cradled the guitar against her, resting the bottom on her Indian-style legs, wrapping her left hand around the neck.  She looked like a natural.  Her eyes darted back and forth between her left and right hands as she hooked her thumbnail under a string and fidgeted her fingers against the same one on the fret board.  She strummed a sour note, winced, adjusted one of the keys on the head, and then strummed again.  Cara played "Ode to Joy", "Kumbiya", and "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore".

            "Can you play anything else?" I asked, a little disappointed.

            "Well, I've been writing one in my head for a while, but I've never put it to anything more than a hum." Cara replied.

            "Play it." I insisted.  She looked nervously about, as if seeking an exit, then nodded.  She played a simple country two-step for a minute, and then she started singing in a small bell-like voice.  The guitar part wasn't that impressive, but her lyrics were beautiful.  Her range was incredible too; she sang more notes than I could read!

            "Wow!" I breathed when she'd finished.  "That was incredible!  I had no idea you could sing, when didn't you tell me?"  Cara just shrugged and laid the guitar down on the bed.

            "Nobody knows, Liz.  I didn't thing anybody would care.  It doesn't' matter, it's just my hobby." She sighed.  "Everybody sings."

            "Your good, Cara, you should do solos in choir.  I mean, I know you're in there, I've seen you, but I can never hear you sing." I replied.  "You could knock 'em dead with that voice!"

            "It's nothing, Liz.  Leave it be."

            "But –" I started.

            "Leave it be." Cara interrupted.  I nodded, sighed, mumbled something about homework, and shuffled through the bathroom to my room.  I flopped down on my bed with a notebook and pencil.  Recently, I'd been working on channeling, and I was going to try again today.

            Channeling is the proper word for zoning out and scribbling in my notes in unknown languages.  What I'd actually done was allowing someone else, a spirit; use me to write a message.  At least, that's what Cara said.  I put the pencil to the paper gently, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and cleared my mind.  I sat like that for quite some time, then snapped out of it and set the paper aside for analysis by Cara.  The pile of papers grew a little taller each day.

            Half an hour later, after dinner, Dane was waiting in my room for me.  We'd been doing a lot less together outside the building since I started working with Cara and Ms. Evy, but he still came by everyday.  We usually snuck off to some distant part of the building to be alone.  For some strange reason, people came by just to "hang out", more and more often when Dane visits.  "Hey Dane, how was your day?" I asked sweetly.

            Dane gave me a peck on the cheek and said, "Hi honey, my day was hell; they keep giving me overtime."  'Overtime' was his word for Detention.  "I guess they just don't like me much."

            "Well, that could be, " I agreed, posing in a thinking position, "or it could be you keep getting in fights."  I knocked gently on his head, driving the info in.  "Or, it could be that you can't seem to get to class on time, ever."

            "It's not my fault Brock fights me; he keeps seeking me out.  And you know me, I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached, how my supposed to keep up with the time?" He joked.

            "Oh well, it doesn't matter, where are we going today?" I asked, heading for the closet exit.

            "It's a surprise." Dane laughed.  "I found it today when I was supposed to be at lunch."

            "A surprise, what is it?" I gushed.

            "Well now, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, now would it?" He scolded.  He had crossed the room to meet me at the closet and now held the shoot door up.  "Come on, get going, it's quite a ways off and I want to get there before dark."  I shrugged and let myself drop down the shoot.  I landed, as always, with a soft plop in a basket of sheets and waited for Dane to follow.  He landed beside me a minute later and we proceeded on our usual route down the passage to the grounds outside.

            The grass was wet with today's fresh rain and our shoes squeaked as we slopped through it.  We headed straight back, Dane leading me to the lawn's edge.  He hopped the discreet wire fence and helped me awkwardly over.  I did a quick look around once on the other side to check for spies and snoops, saw no one, and let him lead me deep into the woods.  We weaved and pushed and shoved our way through vines and bushes and thorns for twenty minutes at a near run pace.

            We stopped in a small clearing, a safe spot from the onslaught of vegetation, and Dane turned and said, "Wait right here a sec, okay?"  I nodded, grateful for a chance to rest and watched him fight his way through the briars.       

            Several minutes passed without a trace of him, so I called into the forest, "Dane, where are you?"  The bushes to my north rustled a bit and I called even louder, "Dane, this isn't funny.  Get your butt back here now!"  The woods to my right creaked and groaned and something snapped a twig.  In a panic, I yelled, "I'm going to count to ten, and if you're not back here, I'm going home, and never talking to you again, so help me God!  Dane, where are you?"

            Just then, the briars surrounding me made an awful noise, from all sides, and a bird flew at me from the bushes, followed by Dane, stepping out of them as if he'd never been gone.  "What's wrong, Liz?"

            "Where the hell did you go?  You left me here all alone with God-knows-what or God-knows-who to get scared to death!  If we're not within spitting-distance of wherever it is you're taking me, I'm going home right now!" I fumed, punching him in the chest as hard as I could with both hands.

            "Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, Liz.  It's just through these weeds here, I promise." Dane replied, catching my wrists with one hand before I landed another one of my willy-nilly punches.  "What happened, are you alright?"  He asked softly, releasing my hands to tip my chin up so I had to look at him.  "Did you see something?"

            "No," I retorted.  "I just had this feeling that someone else is in these woods with us."  I sighed, feeling very childish for letting my imagination run away with me.  "So where is this place?" I asked, pressing one sweaty palm to my forehead, trying to slow the flash of 'what-ifs' racing through my brain.

            "It's just through here, but we can come see it some other time if you're not feeling well." Dane replied.

            "No, no, we're already this far, we might as well go on.  Besides, I'm feeling fine, and I really do want to see it." I answered decidedly.  He shrugged, took my hand, and led me halfway through the thick undergrowth.  "Why did you stop?" I asked, indignant.

            "Close your eyes." Dane replied.

            "What?" 

            "Come on, it's just for fun, so close your eyes.  Please?" He laughed.  I sighed and obeyed.  "And no peeking."  I laughed and dumbly let Dane lead me by both hands through the woods.  I felt the underbrush thin, and finally disappear altogether and Dane left me a moment, then returned saying, "Alright, open your eyes."  I obeyed again and gasped in surprise.

            Before me sat the prettiest little scene imaginable.  A waterfall, strong and loud, how I had ignored the noise, I don't know, sat about ten feet back in front of me.  It was about twenty feet high, five feet wide, and absolutely perfect.  The pool at the bottom was about the size of a small swimming pool and was surrounded by a smooth grassy clearing.  Alongside the height of the waterfall were huge stones forming a crude staircase up the side of the cliff.  The stones were probably perfect to jump off of and into the pool below during the warm summer months. 

            "There's more." Dane chuckled, apparently reading my expression.       

            "More?  Where?" I exclaimed.

            "Behind the waterfall.  It's a cave!" He blurted out.

            "Really?  Show me." I gushed.  Dane laughed, grabbed my hand, and led me around the pool to where the grass and rock disappeared behind the waterfall.

            "Hold on, we're probably going to get a little wet." He said.  "You ready?"  I nodded and we half-jumped, half-swam under the waterfall.  

            "A little wet!" I growled, shivering.  I was drenched from head to toe.  I swung my hair over my shoulder and started ringing it out.

            "You'll dry." He laughed, running a hand through his own short brown hair.  I shook my head hard at him, like a dog, and he put his hands in front of him to attempt to guard from the sudden shower.  "Come on, this is only the mouth." He sighed.  I followed him witlessly through the dark for a few minutes, making polite conversation to keep track of where he was by the sound of his voice.  Finally, he stopped answering my inane questions and the silence was unbearable, until he said, "Wait here, I'll be right back."

            "Oh no, not that again.  Wherever you go, I go.  It is too damn dark in here for you to wander off without me." I insisted.

            "Well, if you wait right here, and don't move a muscle, I'll be right back with something to fix this damn dark, alright?" Dane assured me, gently squeezing my shoulders.

            "Wait," I called when his hand left mine, "how will you find me again?"  _Obviously, I_ thought, if_ he's going to get something to make the dark go away, he will be able to see me with it._

            "Well, if my plan fails, and I can't find the flashlight I left in here, I'll listen for you, okay?  So, sing something, and sing it loud." He suggested, walking away.

            "What should I sing?" I called, but there was no answer.  I cleared my throat and shakily said, "At first I was afraid, I was petrified."  I hushed myself a moment, listening for echoes that would confuse Dane, and for sounds of him coming back.  When I was satisfied with the echoes, I continued with the song, a little stronger this time.  "Thought that I could never live without you by my side."  I got so into it, that when Dane gently touched my shoulder at the end of it, I nearly jumped out of my skin!

            "That sounded nice." He said, sounding genuine.

            "Where's the light?" I snapped.

            "Right here," He chuckled, clicking on the flashlight.  "What's the matter, afraid of the dark?"  _Jeez, she sure is jumpy today._

            "No, and I'm not jumpy!  Why didn't you turn the light on before so I could see you coming?" I asked, still peeved.

            "I didn't want to interrupt your performance." He chuckled again.  "And I never said you were jumpy."

            "Well, you were thinking it!" I retorted honestly.

            "What makes you say that?" He asked slowly.  _She is really getting paranoid!  I mean, I do think she's jumpy, but anyone else would say that if she's like this around them_

"I am not paranoid!  I can just feel it when something bad is about to happen, okay!  And when I can feel it, everyone else just ignores me, they don't say I'm jumpy!" I shouted defensively.

            "Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's just try to be rational about all this, huh?"  _I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, there they are a standing in the road…_

"Dane, what is wrong with you?  Here we are, having a serious argument, and all you're thinking about is the coconut song!" I shouted again.

            "Liz, I didn't say you were jumpy or paranoid, nor did I say anything about coconuts." He began softly.

            "But you thought them." I insisted.

            "Exactly." He agreed.  I stopped a moment and thought about it.  I had slipped up and let Dane know I can read minds, something I wanted him of all people not to know.  _Crap, that just makes everything harder, now doesn't it?  Good going, Liz, why don't you ever just keep your mouth shut?_

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, huh?" Dane whispered.

            "What?" I breathed.  _Did I send him that thought, or did he take it?_

            "A little bit of both, actually." He chuckled.  I stared at him a long moment.  _You were somewhat angry, therefore the emotions of the thought were right out in the open, and your mind was open for me to read._

"You can read minds?" I gasped.  _For how long, how much does he know?  Some of this stuff could seriously endanger him._

_            So what? So can you.  If it makes you feel better, I can't really control mine.  And don't you worry about me; I can take care of myself.  I'm surprised you didn't think it to me a long time ago, I mean, that's some serious self-control to know what not to think!_

_            This is kind of weird, Dane.  I mean, no one else ever knows what I'm thinking unless I send it to them._

_            Again, so what?  This just makes our conversations even harder to listen in to.  _Dane laughed, grinning from ear to ear, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.  My cheeks started burning with the next thought that skipped through my mind, knowing he could hear it, and not being able to banish it.  _Does it really bother you that much that I can read you? _

"No!  Well, yes." I stammered aloud.  Another crazy thought trotted through my head, ignoring my attempts to hold it down.  Dane looked down at me, his grin fading in the action to a look that made me shiver inside.  His eyes burned holes just before his mouth came crashing down on mine.  Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life as our kiss smothered me.  No more thoughts ran through my head for the next two minutes.

            "Better?" He chuckled.  _Hold on, man.  Not yet, not yet, she's just not ready.  Breathe, breathe, you've just got to breathe and think about something else.  Oh no, think.  I'm thinking, and she's catching every bit of it!  _"Oh no, um, Liz, it's like this, um, you see –" He stammered.

            "Shush, it's alright," I whispered, pressing a finger to his lips.  "I understand completely."  He sighed, caught my hand, kissed the top of it lightly, and we continued on our way.  "I want to see what's in here."  I made out the shadow of him shrugging, before I took the light from him and led the way through the cavern.  Dane followed along, humming my song softly.

            The flashlight penetrated the darkness, cutting it like a crude knife.  As I was swinging it back and forth, I caught something shiny in it off to my right up ahead.  "What was that?" He asked just as I was thinking the same thing.

            "I don't know, but I'm going to find out." I replied, marching towards the shiny object.  Before I reached it though, I banged my hip on something and whatever it was rocked unsteadily on the floor.  I swung the flashlight in the general direction and spotted my assailant.  "Check it out, Dane." I laughed.  "I found a stand."

            "What was on it?" He asked, reaching out and steadying the thing with one hand.  I looked on the floor around the stand, saw nothing, and took a few more steps before stubbing my toe.  I swung the light to my feet and stared dumbly at what lay there.  I stooped down, gently picked up the black statue, and cradled it a moment.  I set it on the pedestal and turned to Dane as he asked, "What is that thing?"  I ran my fingers down the statue and its name practically shouted itself in my head.

            "It's Sehhmet." I whispered, foreign emotions drawing tears to my eyes.  "It's an Egyptian goddess much like the biblical angel of death.  It's said that when the people of Egypt began doubting the gods' existence and power, they sent down Sehhmet and she, with the body of a woman and the head of a lion, walked the lands of Egypt, devouring all whom doubted.  But then she had had the taste of blood and, much like a vampire, craved it, and she couldn't be stopped.  The gods tied her up and left her in the cave of the underworld for all eternity." I explained.

            "Wow, you really know a lot about this." Dane laughed.  _Kind of creepy, but still impressive._

            _Not really.  _I snorted, studying the statue.

            "What do you mean?" He asked.

            "I didn't know it, it just came to me, like something I've known all my life, but I'd forgotten it.  It felt as if something just came up and whispered it in my ear." I whispered, shivering involuntarily.  "Come on, I still want to see what was shiny."  I trudged on towards the shine, reached over, and picked it up.

            Dane took it from me, turned it over and over, and said, "I know what this is!"

            "What?" I asked.

            "It's used to put out candles without splashing wax everywhere, well, actually, it's only part of the tool.  The handle's missing." Dane explained.

            "So, where are the candles?" I laughed.

            "Right here." He replied.  I turned to see Dane puzzling over one single, stubby, nearly dead candle.

            "Great, are there any more?" I snickered.  Dane looked around the walls as if something was supposed to be there, then smiled really big.  "What?" I snorted.

            "I found the rest of the candles." He replied.  "Do you have a lighter, or better yet, some matches?"

            "Actually," I chuckled, patting my blazer pocket, "yeah, I do."  I pulled the book of matches out and set them in Dane's open palm.  "But I don't know how well they'll work since we got them wet."  He worked the matches a minute, desperately trying to get one to light, before the small red flare rewarded him.  He lit the small candle and threw the match down, shielding the fragile flame with his other hand.

            "Be prepared to be amazed." Dane said in a great magician's voice.  _I sure hope this works.  _He leaned against the wall, but not against it.  There was something running across the wall that he leaned on; it ran around the entire room!  He smiled at me devilishly, and carefully dropped the candle behind whatever he was leaning on.  In the blink of an eye, the room lit up, and he laughed, "Ta-da!"

            I could now see what he'd been leaning against; it was a chute of some kind running along the walls, now filled with fire.  "How'd you do that?" I asked, puzzled.

            "I smelled the gasoline, it's in the track here.  Apparently someone else had used this cave at some time." He explained.

            "Wow, look at this place!" I breathed, spinning around, looking at all the things that had been invisible only moments before.  There was a crude pentagram painted in red on the floor, which I now stood in the center of.  The walls were covered in drawings, and strange markings.  I walked over to the nearest panel and traced the carvings with my fingers, feeling serious déjà vu.  When I held the statue, I had felt this rush of information, and now I was feeling that same feeling.  

            "Whoa, hold on." I groaned.  "These markings, they're Incan, or Zapotec."  I ran my fingers across the wall and shivered with another blast of info.

            "Are you okay, Liz?  You're making no sense." Dane asked, grabbing my shoulders to steady me.

            I shrugged him off and continued walking slowly along the wall, brushing my hand against it.  "Now it's Egyptian, wait, it changed again.  Now it's Celtic.  Now Latin!" I rejoiced, racing along the wall.  "Pictographs from Mesopotamia, Babylonia, India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Native Americans too.  They're all here!"

            "Liz, Liz, you're ranting.  You're not making any sense, and the stuff you're sending me is so confused I can't think with it in here.  Who's all here, what's up?  Now calm down and tell me what this is and how you know it." Dane pleaded.  He sounded so far away, like he was calling to me from across the cavern.  A strange melody had snaked its way into my head and I began humming it thoughtlessly.  "Liz!" He commanded, suddenly right beside me again, ripping me away from wherever I'd gone.

            "Liz." He commanded again, gently this time, carefully wrapping his fingers around my wrist, pulling my hand from the wall.  "Talk to me, Liz." He begged, placing his palm against my cheek and tearing my gaze from the wall.  "How do you know all this?"

            "I don't know!" I half sobbed.  A lump had lodged itself in my throat, and I tried my best to swallow it.  "I really don't know; I feel as if it told me.  Something wants me here, doesn't want me to leave, ever.  What's happening to me, Dane, I used to be so normal?" I whined, burying my face in Dane's shirt.

            "Xabo ugw zoo, xabo ugw zoo, vro jagwomz ah aim jamsu." Something whispered in my mind, then it was gone, and the absence of knowledge buckled my knees. 

            Dane caught me roughly around the waist and said, "I don't know what's going on, Liz, but we can sure as hell do our best to find out.  It's alright, whatever it is trying to hold you here; it's going to have to go through me first.  Okay?"  I sniffed my nose, nodded weakly, and followed him as he put out the track torch, grabbed the flashlight, and left the cave under the waterfall.  It was a twenty minute walk back to the dorms and I was so exhausted from an info overload, Dane had to carry me most of the way.


	13. Lophelian

Chapter 13

            The sun had set sometime while we were in the cave, so I had no real sense of time, and a real sense of danger.  "Where were you, Liz, it's nearly nine?" Cara whispered sharply, snagging me as I stumbled slowly down the hall, and dragging me into her room.

            "You wouldn't believe me even if you saw it yourself!" I answered solemnly.  I had absent-mindedly taken the statue we'd found and wrapped it in my blazer, which I now opened up to show Cara.  She snatched it from me and ran her hands all over it, checking for something, what I did not know, then looked up at me, confused.  "It's Sehhmet, the Egyptian 'Angel of Death' goddess.  I found it in a cave." I explained sleepily.  Cara sat there, silently examining the statue a moment, while I let the song in and hummed what I knew of it, sprawling across Cara's bed.

            "A cave?"

            "Yeah, Dane showed it to me.  It's about twenty minutes outside the fence, back behind a waterfall.  The whole cave is full of writings on the walls, from all over the world." I began.

            "Writings?" Cara gawked, still holding the statue.

            "Yeah, all different kinds.  Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Celtic, Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Native American, Latin, Incan, Zapotecian; you name it, it's there." I listed with a sleepy snort.

            "Since when were you an expert on ancient civilizations, much less their languages?" She asked bluntly.

            Offended, I retorted, "I know some things, Cara.  Besides," I caved.  "I didn't know, they told me, the statue did too."

            "They told you?" Cara asked incredulously.

            "Yeah, I know it sounds strange, but that's the only way to describe it." I chuckled.

            "So this is another skill you've acquired, I should write this down." She decided.  Since that first day of channeling, she'd been keeping a notebook of channeled conversations, strange occurrences, my "skills", and her off handed theories about it all.        

            "What skill would that be?" I snorted, covering my eyes with my hand, blocking out the bright overhead light.

            "You're psychic." Cara stated simply.

            "Duh!"

            "No," She continued, lifting my hand to look me in the eye.  "This is different from automatic writing, or playing mental telephone.  This is touch vision.  It wasn't the writings talking to you, it was the wall itself; the caves memories of someone else being there, knowing about the writings and the statue.  You just gained access to the cave's knowledge of what you were touching.  This belongs in the book." She explained.  Cara truly was my Giles, my Leo, my Aunt Zelda, or even my Oracle.

            "Great, so next time I touch a desk, I'll remember the kid who picked her nose and wiped it under there!" I whined.

            "No, I'm pretty sure it only works when it's something important, when you want it to work." Cara promised.

            "Cara," I began, "do you remember that dream I told you about?"  She thought a moment, and then nodded slowly.  "Well, I'm almost positive that this was the black statue in my dream."

            "Really?" She asked, genuinely curious.

            "Yeah, I'm pretty sure.  I have the strangest feeling that the dream wasn't just a dream.  Like, maybe it was a vision something sent me, or maybe it was a map, an instruction manual, so to speak.  I feel like I'm supposed to follow it, in order, like, I'll never any of this if I don't." I confided.

            "Well, if that's true, then we have a secret door to find in the library.  You've already had the near-death encounter with the pool, and now the statue in the dark passage, so, all that's left is the bookcase door, and the guy." Cara agreed, adding the last word a little softer.

            "I guess so, but I want you to see the cave first.  Maybe there's more to it that what I saw.  Besides, the waterfall would be an awesome place to swim this spring." I decided.  "Although, I don't know what we'll wear!"  Cara and I talked until ten, when Elsa knocked sharply on the door for lights-out and I was forced to tiptoe back to my room.

            I changed out of my wet clothes and into my pjs, pulled back the covers, and found myself near tears when I found a neatly scribbled note and a peanut butter cup.  I saved the candy for later, gently dropping it into my underwear drawer, and I snuggled into bed with the note.  I drifted off to sleep with the last thought in my head being the next day was Halloween.  I slept deeply, without so much as a sigh, but the dream came, he came again.  This time, I learned more than I would ever care to know.

            The pool and the statue were gone, nowhere in sight; listed under "done" and put away without a second thought.  I entered the dream, staring at the red glowing book.  It lifted off the shelf and the bookcase swung back, but I stayed a moment longer than last time, just long enough to read the title of the red glowing book.  Then, I was standing in the nothingness, and He was there.  The only difference about the scenery was this time it didn't scare me; in fact, it was almost soothing.

            "Hello again." I began, trying to sound confident.

            "Do not put on airs with me, Elizabeth!  I know your true heart's desire." He commanded.

            "Why not, you do?" I snorted.  "You're all up in my head, telling me what to do, and blah blah magical fire, blah blah you must choose, and blah blah destiny.  You drag on like a vampire or something.  You know, I'm not in a very good mood tonight, Carl, or Bill, or Bob, or whoever the fuck you are, so why don't you just come back some other time, okay?" I snapped.

            "Do not speak to me, Oseluyovr, unless I give you permission!  You are my servant, and I am your master!" He screamed.  Out of nowhere, he appeared, the borrowed ANGEL face strained, eyes searing with rage, jaw set determinedly, and he grabbed me.  One hand came around my neck, the other simultaneously spinning me around and holding my wrists behind my back.  I could no longer see his face, but I could feel nearly every inch of him pressed against my back.

            He loosened his grip on my neck slightly, stroking my throat with one sharp fingernail.  "You see, you've already begun to like it here my sweet.  Don't bother denying it, I know what you're thinking, remember?  Come now, relax, and let me have you."  I nodded weakly, somewhat numb.  "Good girl, Oseluyovr.  Don't worry, you will grow accustomed to the dark, and forever isn't really that long when you're enjoying it."

            He released my neck altogether and replaced his hands with his mouth, licking, nibbling and sucking upon it.  He gently massaged my shoulders and, ever so slowly, spun me to face him.  There was a strange look in his eyes; a mix between hate, love, and revenge, in his borrowed eyes, one I'd never seen before.  He smiled, chuckling softly, and suddenly his mouth was on mine, hot, demanding, and oddly welcome.  His tongue explored my mouth and I felt a sharp twinge, and, startled, I quickly withdrew.

            I pressed one finger to my lips and felt something thick and wet.  I drew my hand away and stared dumbly at my bloodstained fingers.  "You bit me." I laughed.  "You stupid son of a bitch, you bit me!"

            "Blood has always been a curious commodity, Oseluyovr, just getting in the way of true enlightenment." He laughed darkly, chilling me to the bone.  "Now come, we shall remove the pestilence upon your brain and the darkness will never scare you again.  Nothing will scare you, ever again, Oselyovr.  Don't you want that, to be fearless?"

            "No, fear is good.  It's an emotion, that's what separates people from animals, feelings.  I like being afraid, it's a rush.  So, if it's okay with you, I'd like to keep that so called pestilence that makes me scared." I stuttered.  Nameless, fearsome stalkers, I could handle.  Them wanting to reach in and squiggle their fingers inside my head, I could not.

            "I was not asking!" He roared.  "You shall be mine, even if you're in bloodless bits and pieces!"  He lunged at me, grabbed me around the throat with one hand, and lifted me into the air above him.  I kicked and squirmed, but he only squeezed tighter and laughed, "Silly girl, I will not let you stop the ritual!  It is coming, and not even the Twelfth Sibyl can stop me!"

            "Who are you?" I whispered, getting dizzy, my vision blurring slightly.    

            "I am called Lophelian.  I care not that you know this, now that you'll never see the world to tell it.  You will stay here with me, forever, along with all you know.  The earth will warm and the sun will shine for a blissfully brief moment, and then the darkness shall come and swallow the entire world in shadow in a single bite.  It's a pity you won't be there to see it." He laughed, his fingernails digging painfully into my neck and I felt something warm and sticky run down to my shoulder.

            Desperate, I did the only thing I could think to do.  I couldn't scream, for Lophelian held me too tightly.  So I thought.  _Cara!  Cara, it's Liz, wake up!  He's got me; you have to wake up and save me!_

"You think I can't hear you too, Oseluyovr?  Silly, stupid girl, she cannot hear you she is incapable.  So just be a good child and die!" Lophelian laughed.

            _Cara, _my mind screamed.  I could somehow feel the edges of her mind, resisting me.  The nature state of her brain was tightly closed, and I had to somehow open it up.  I closed my eyes and visualized pushing open a rusty door, and once safely inside, I screamed again.  This time, I felt her shudder and accept my message.  _Good Cara, now come wake me up, this is very important. _I commanded.  _Come wake me up, now!_

            Right next door, Cara sat straight up in bed and shivered.  She shook the sleep from her mind and laughed at the foolishness of her dream.  She'd been having the most delicious dream about being a famous dancer, and having her favorite super star fall head over heels for her, when Liz burst in screaming to wake up.  "I must be losing my mind!" She chuckled softly, but then she remembered the incident between Ms. Evy and Liz.  She jumped out of bed and wrenched both bathroom doors open and stormed into Liz's room.

            "Liz, come on girl, wake up." Cara whined, shaking me gently.  "Liz, get you ass out of bed before I have to drag you out!"  I was just about to black out from a lack of air, thanks to Lophelian, when I heard Cara calling me.  I smiled at him as I became translucent and slipped between his fingers like a wisp of smoke.  I opened my eyes and coughed, gasping for air.  

            "You alright, Liz?" Cara asked softly.

            "I am now.  Jeez, you sleep like a rock; Lophelian nearly killed me by the time I got through to you!" I laughed, still light headed.  I smiled up at Cara, but she was studying me with a peculiar look of horror and I suddenly felt sick.  "What?" I asked, running my hands over my face, feeling for a bump or a blemish, then down my neck and my hand stuck to a gooey spot.  I jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom, flipped on the light, and stared into the mirror.  I turned my head slowly to the right and nearly fainted at the sight of the telltale blood oozing from four neat puncture marks on my neck; Lophelian's fingernails.

            Cara came up behind me and caught me around the waist, just in case I decided to fall down, and asked gently, "Liz, did you do this, or did someone else?"

            "It wasn't me, Cara, I swear.  It was Lophelian!" I assured her.

            "Alright, I was only asking.  Let's clean it up before it gets infected or something, or anyone sees it." She agreed.  She guided me to the toilet to sit down so she could attend to my wounds.  I sat there, silently staring blankly at the fish swimming across the shower curtain, my mind in total disarray.  Cara calmly wiped the blood away with a washcloth, rinsed my neck with peroxide, smeared on some Neosporin, and covered it with a large piece of gauze.  "There, all better, see?"

            "I stood and looked in the mirror again, examining the pure white square held on by medical tape, knowing what it hid making me shiver.  Cara stood in the doorway, eyebrows raised, as if seeking approval, so I nodded weakly.  She smiled and led me back to bed, tucking me in as if I were a baby.  She sat down on the edge of the bed, drew a deep breath, and asked one simple question.  "Who is Lophelian?"  I told her everything, even the bits and pieces I'd left out about the kissing and such when I'd told her before.  

            When I'd finished, Cara stood up and headed for the door, then, on a second thought, stopped.  "Liz, I have a plan.  It's too late and you're far too gone to hear it now, but tomorrow I'll tell you.  Just prepare yourself for one thing; we have to tell the others."  I nodded silently and drifted off to sleep again with the lamp still burning brightly.


	14. Halloween

Chapter 14

            The next day was Friday, October thirty-first, Halloween.  I stayed after World History to talk to Ms. Evy, to tell her about last night.  She sat there and listened silently and when I'd finished, out of nowhere, she gave me a big hug.  "Elizabeth, who else knows about this?" She asked.

            "Just Cara, why?" I replied.

            "Well, if your dreams are actually visions, then there's someone out there, looking for you, trying to hurt you.  I'm not trying to scare you, Elizabeth, it's just, if there's someone after you, you can't trust anyone.  Cara's fine, she's one of the few people I'd trust with my life, but don't tell anyone else.  Okay?" Ms. Evy told me.  I nodded, feeling pulled in two directions.

            "Ms. Evy, you're right about one thing." I said, walking towards the door, then turning and looking at her.

            "What's that, Elizabeth?"

            I pulled down the neck of my turtleneck, part of our fall and winter uniform, and peeled back the gauze.  Ms. Evy gasped and turned pale at the sight of my injury.  "Lophelian wants me to join him, or he wants me dead.  He said that not even the Twelfth Sibyl could stop him.  I have the funniest feeling that that's me."

            "Oh Lord no, God no.  It's impossible.  Elizabeth," She gasped again, crossing the room, grabbing my shoulders, and shaking me hard.  "Swear on your life you're not teasing me.  Did Lophelian call you the Twelfth Sibyl?"  I nodded dumbly.  "What exactly did he say?"

            "He said, 'Silly girl, I will not let you stop the ritual!  It's coming, and not even the Twelfth Sibyl can stop me!'" I mimicked, throwing my head back and doing that laugh he used to scare me.

            "Wow, have you ever thought of acting?" She asked, caught off guard.  "Anyways, you're sure that's exactly what he said to you?"  I nodded, quite confused.  "Well, there's no time to talk about it now, and it's Friday.  I must consult my books this weekend, then I'll explain it all on Monday."

            "Okay, wait, explain what?" I asked, catching her wrist as she slung her purse onto her shoulder.  "You know something, and I want to know, too.  Now tell me." I demanded.  "If we can't talk here, I know where we can, but you're not just going to interrogate me like some kind of criminal and then waltz out of here without sharing your half of the story."  She rubbed her wrist when I relinquished it and gave a deep dismal sigh.  

            "Where shall we go?" Ms. Evy asked.  I flashed her a quick smile, hugged her strongly, and ran out the door.  "Okay, I'll meet you there at noon." She called after me.  I ran as fast as I could, ducking classroom windows as I went to English.  I pencil tapped and twitched my way through it, itching to see Evy again.  Then I diligently worked on my Arts and Crafts project, trying to keep my mind off of the possible things she could tell me.  I rushed to the dining hall, through the line, punched in my number, and hurried to our table.  I sat down, ate fast, and bussed my tray in a record time of eight minutes.

            "You know, I'm not doing so well in English, so I think I should probably go study.  If anybody needs me, I'll be in the library." I lied in one breath.  Cara quirked an eyebrow at me, but she said nothing.  I walked quickly through the school, so as not to be suspected of trouble, and hurried through the library to the Mythology section.  Ms. Evy was there, pretending to be enthralled in a book.  "Great cover, captain obvious." I giggled, taking the book from her, called The Courting Rituals of the Ancient World, and closing it so she could see the cover.  "Now everyone will either think you're up to something, or you're obsessed with sex!"

            Ms. Evy giggled too, covering her mouth with one hand to stifle it.  "I was trying to be inconspicuous!"  She was nearly roaring with laughter now.  Ms. Apple walked by slowly, most likely glaring us to silence, but we just giggled harder.  "Perhaps we should sit down and look busy." Ms. Evy sighed, the mirth dieing from her eyes.  "We've much to talk about."  I nodded and followed her to a pair of short armchairs with a table in between.  She snagged up a few choice books of myths along the way so we'd have something to "study".

            We sat down and now, with her composure back in place, Ms. Evy looked grave.  "The Twelfth Sibyl is the last of a long line of prophets, according to most mythological records." She began.  "Almost every civilization of man ever known has a story with so many similarities, that it's very difficult to take into account as merely a myth.  I believe they all speak of the same event, different versions of the same tale.  This event is the existence, and destruction of a great island civilization."

            "Atlantis, I know, I'm practically an expert on it, remember?" I finished, bored.

            "Yes, I expected this much, but what is a piece of rare knowledge is how Atlantis died.  Everyone knows that the island exploded and was overrun by lava from the center of the island being an unknown volcano erupting.  What people don't know is that Aristotle isn't the first story of Atlantis in history.  There are stories in Mesopotamia and Babylonia that predate the Greek philosopher's story.  It's said that the story was written down by one of the scribes, but a woman who spoke many languages, but couldn't write the Mesopotamian pictographs, yet, dictated it.  She had an advanced knowledge of medicine, engineering, mathematics, history, and geography." Ms. Evy said solemnly.

            "An Atlantean?" I guessed.

            "Yes, she was a survivor.  When the scribes presented her to their council, the rulers of the time, she introduced herself as Sibala, which was written down as Sibyl.  She was the first.  She inquired the council if they had opened their iron mine yet.  The council asked her what was iron, and what was a mine.  Sibala promised gold and silver in massive amounts if they promised not to build a mine in Babylonia." Ms. Evy sighed.  "That's why they built the tower, to have a place to put the stone and rock from the mine."

            "How did Sibala know?" I asked, deep down, already knowing the answer.

            "She had a vision of the tower falling and Babylonians speaking in tongues."

            "Why did that happen?" I wondered aloud.  "I mean, I know the bible says…"

            "The bible says that God cursed the people, but that is not what every other country in the world says.  The others say that a strange poison was in the mine, causing people to hallucinate, making them unable to communicate with each other.  The council ordered the tower to be torn down and the stones placed over the mine.  Many people died because those effected with hallucinations, were basically poisoned.  Sibala tried to warn them, but instead, it sparked their curiosity and doomed them."

            "What about Atlantis, though." I prodded.

            "Well, Atlantis was so advanced because they had a strange mystical power caused by chemicals in their main source of food; fish.  Nearly every Atlantean had the power of ESP.  They used it to see where to mine, fish, plant, and build their homes and cities.  Because many Atlanteans dreamed the future, Atlantis was able to prepare for hurricanes, floods, famines, outbreaks of disease; all the things that devastated other civilizations and slowed down their advancement.  Sometimes, in the case of famines and disease, they could prevent it altogether." She explained.

            "Because Atlantis could avoid disaster, most lived much longer that the rest of man, even at it's peak, with a life expectancy of about two hundred years."

            "Two hundred years!" I exclaimed.

            "Yes, but that's not the end of it.  They lived very healthy lives and instead of deteriorating at around the age of seventy, they were quite fit right up until 190 years.  They could still have children until the age of 150, for women, and 170, for men.  This made it a civilization overflowing the island, like a river jumping it's banks.  With such massive amounts of people, a huge famine was right around the corner for Atlantis."

            "What did they do?" I asked, enthralled.

            "They didn't kill people, if that's what you're thinking.  They sent relatively young, childless adults off the island, not banished, merely relocated.  These couples were sent to Europe, Africa, South America, and North America: all sea-bound countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean.  Once there, they were to build one village secluded from the other cultures and build a family.  Once their children reached the ripe age of fifteen, they were sent back to Atlantis to learn the ways of their people."

            "Like being sent off to school." I said, my heart going out to those ancient teens.

            "The children remained amongst the elders, their teachers, ate the local fish to receive their gifts, until they turned twenty and were matched up and sent home to build their families.  This was the way for hundreds of years, thus thinning the population of the island of Atlantis and virtually taking over the world.  It also made it possible for Atlantis to grow richer through trade with other countries.  Now, not many people believe this because the say it would have taken years at sea to reach Atlantis from the other continents.  I don't believe they traveled by sea at all."

            "How'd they do it?" I asked.

            "There is a common structure, very minute, but still there, in the structures of Stonehenge, the pyramids, not at Giza, but the older ones in Egypt, the pyramids in Central and South America, and the Cahokia mounds in Illinois.  The general shape, the number of stairs in the pyramids, where certain stones are placed to indicate lunar and solar eclipses.  These were built by Atlanteans as a sort of landing pad, so to speak.  Atlantis had the technology of air travel.  At night, once a year, Atlanteans would go to the sacred, secret places and the ships would come for them when no one would see."

            "So the had planes?" I asked.

            "Well, yes and no.  They could travel through the air, but not on planes.  Not even the most highly distinguished experts know how they truly did it, but I suspect they used portals.  The fluctuation of matter leaves gaps here and there all the time, and Atlanteans simply charted these fluctuations so they could schedule their rips.  With the gaps between matter, they tore a small hole in the space-time continuum and walked through nothingness until they reached where they were going.  I suppose it was much like digging a hole to China." Ms. Evy chuckled.

            "Okay, but what about the rest of the time?" I asked.

            "It was too dangerous to stay in the nothing too long, so any more often than once a year was just too risky, but the rest of the time, they did fly."

            "But you said…"

            "No, they did not have planes, they had something far more efficient than that.  They had dragons."

            "Dragons?" I breathed.

            "Yes, my dear, dragons.  Real live dragons.  They flew swiftly, silently, and so fast, the most the world ever saw of them was their shadows." Evy laughed.

            "Okay, I'm going to ask more about that later, but what about Lophelian?" I asked, suddenly exhausted.

            "Well, Lophelian was an Atlantean, but he was very different from the rest.  He developed an allergy to fish at a very young age, therefore, what little psychic abilities he gained were very weak.  Without that, his only purpose in life was to walk through the nothingness to transport goods between the colonies.  Lophelian lived like this for a hundred years or so, and spending so much time in the dark began to change him.  When he was in the nothingness, his psychic abilities were amplified ten fold and he could hear what people all over the world were thinking."

            "So that's where he takes me, the nothingness between matter and listens to my thoughts where he's strongest." I concluded.  Ms. Evy nodded and continued with her story.

            "They call it the Etherealm.  Anyway, Lophelian wanted revenge against the people he envied so much, and to get it, he would end up killing everyone.  He took things into the nothingness and left them there instead of delivering them to trade.  He built his home in the nothingness and listened to the world think, devising his plan for world domination.  First, he crippled Atlantis, financially, and the economy fell in a matter of months."

            "How sad." I sighed.

            Ms. Evy nodded in agreement and said, "It was.  Lophelian thought that this would happen too quickly for anyone to escape.  Then, when the thousand-year commemoration came about and everyone slipped back to the island, he destroyed it.  From all over the world Atlanteans went home, leaving few not at the celebration, thus making it possible for the whole civilization to end.  He walked into the nothingness and pushed and prodded various things until a volcano blew most of the island to bits and covering what was left in a tidal wave."

            "All over the world the rumblings and shiftings were felt, many of which causing some of history's greatest disasters of all time.  The destruction of Pompeii, the parting of the Red Sea, and then the closing of it, just to name a few.  The destruction was complete for Atlantis, or so it seems."

            "All of it, gone?" I mourned.

            "Well, you've never seen it, have you?" She teased.

            "No, but I sort of wished the ruins were still under the ocean somewhere, waiting for me to find them, or that maybe, just maybe, it was still thriving somewhere."

            "Oh but it is, Elizabeth, it is.  I'm getting to that." She soothed, gently patting my hand.  "No one saw it coming because Lophelian did all his planning in the Etherealm, except one girl."

            "The First Sibyl?" I guessed.

            "No, the Second.  Sibala married and had a daughter named Sita.  This girl, barely four, was more intelligent than most Atlantean elders of 190 years.  For her entire life, she slept only two hours at a time because she had horrible night terrors.  She dreamt of death, flood, famine, destruction, specifically of Atlantis."

            "How?" I gasped.

            "I honestly don't know, but it was her purpose to warn the world, and she did.  Slowly but surely, Atlanteans fled the island, even though the elders claimed it was the fantasy of a harmless child, not a prophecy.  When Lophelian made his move to destroy Atlantis, a small group of believers made a dangerous rip to overthrow him.  They failed, unfortunately, but when they tried to rip out, they were trapped forever.  So, if it makes you feel better, Atlantis does live on somewhere, all around us." Ms. Evy concluded.

            "But what about the rest of them?" I asked.

            "Most of them died, but a fortunate thousand or so mounted their dragons, took to the sky, and were never seen again.  I suspect the aliens everyone runs into, the ones that leave crop circles and mysterious lights in the sky, is them, watching over us, watching for Lophelian."

            "Really?"

            "I believe so, yes." She sighed.

            "Wow, what a story!" I breathed, leaning back in my chair.  "If none of this is in the history books, how do you know it?"

            "Every now and then, after a series of disasters in Europe, some lunatic 

pops out of nowhere, spouting junk about the end of the world.  He's not just some nut out of his tree, these people that appear out of nowhere, they're Atlanteans who pushed through the Etherealm into the real world."

            "So you've met an Atlantean?" I exclaimed, suspicion picking at my brain.

            "No, Elizabeth.  I made my rip in the early 1600s, when I was nearly twenty."

            "But that would mean, you're about four hundred years old!  That's just not possible!  Even after all you've told me, and I believe you, that's not possible.  How can this be?" I whispered, baffled.

            "I don't know, Liz, I really don't.  I should have died long ago, yet I live on.  Once I ripped through, I lost all contact with the others.  The elders would know, but by now, even the babies of my clan have died, by now even my grandchildren have reached old age and near death as we speak." Ms. Evy sighed sorrowfully.

            "Grandchildren?" I asked.

            "Yes, I truly hope Finius, my husband, raised the little ones, Devi and Shiva well.  When I last saw them, Devi had just turned four, and Shiva three.  Now my children are dead, their children nearly dead, whom I have never met, and my great grandchildren reaching mid-life."

            "Why did you leave them if you miss them so much?" I asked.

            "The plan was that they would come with me, but they never made it out.  One of my closest friends betrayed me at the last moment and stole Finius, Devi, and Shiva away from me.  I will never forgive Sulaki for taking them from me."

            "I'm so sorry Ms., um…" I began, but drifted off when I realized Evy might not be her real name.

            "My true name is much like the one you're familiar with; it's Evysulis." She filled in.

            "Okay, I'll stick with Evy." I laughed.  She laughed along with me, some of the tension draining away.  When she finished, I asked her a question, the answer to which I desperately wanted.  "Evy, why didn't Lophelian die, and why is he after me?"

            "Lophelian lives on in the Etherealm, but don't worry, whoever is left of my family is safe from him, for he lives on a different plane than they do.  I myself have not seen him, but, obviously, he's still there.  I used to think the same dark magic he used to move the world to destruction, he used to prolong his own cursed existence, but from what you tell me, he's simply a vampire.  Though I suspect he does not have eternal youth, making him a horror to the eyes.  As to the second question, you already know the answer.  You are the Twelfth Sibyl, and only you can stop the ritual." Evy replied.

            "Yes, I know, but how did I become the Twelfth Sibyl if my mother is perfectly normal, and I'm not Atlantean." I replied.

            "Come with me." She responded, lifting herself out of her chair and leading me through the library.  Evy led me back to the mythology section and scanned the shelf of books nearest to her.

            "What are you looking for?" I asked.

            "Aha, here it is.  Ancient World Prophets, just the book I was looking for." She beamed.  Her fingers nearly tore the pages as she raced through the book, searching for something.  She stopped and looked up at me, and I leaned over the side of the book to see.  It showed a tree, a family tree so to speak, leading back to 69 B.C.

            "This goes back way past B.C., Liz, it goes back to the First.  This chart shows every Sibyl so far to have walked this earth.  Most of these people died unnatural deaths; snake bites, mutiny, stabbings, suicide, beheading, stigmata, and burned at the stake." Evy said, pointing to each name as she listed off their cause of death.

            I read the chart over and over again, shocked, and strangely honored.  The top of the tree was Sibyl, or Sibala, then Sitala, or Sita, then Lu Tung-Pin, Cleopatra, Jehanne Darc, Fr. Laurence of Rome, Pocahontas, Marie Antoinette, Ezekiel Karsh, H.G. Wells, and Eva Braun, and then the bottom blank had a large inked question mark.  "Some of these names I recognize, some I don't."

            "Well this one, Lu Tung-Pin is so old, he's thought of as a mere myth, but he was a Chinese warrior who had a vision of his men being slaughtered while the emperor slept, and woke up in time to prevent it.  He was a national hero and became the emperor's bodyguard.  He was stabbed with a Samurai sword when he stepped in front of the emperor to protect him at the age of seventeen." Evy explained. 

            "Tough break."

            "And this one is, and you must know Cleopatra and Pocahontas, and of course Marie Antoinette; all dead before they hit forty.  Poison made of cobra's venom, pneumonia, and beheaded by her country.  You probably don't know the rest of them."

            "Nope.  Who's Jehanne Darc?"

            "Jehanne Darc is the given name of the medieval French woman we know as Joan of Arc.  She was burned at the stake."

            "Joan of Arc, wow!"  
            "Father Laurence of Rome was a priest who prophesized an outbreak of the plague in 1690.  He later developed stigmata and died in his bed of blood loss."

            "Lophelian?" I guessed.

            "I believe so, Liz.  Ezekiel Karsh was a soldier in the German army in the same unit as Adolph Hitler during World War 1.  He woke up one night screaming that Adolph was a monster; he needed to be destroyed before he killed thousands of people.  Hitler rolled over and shot him in the back of the head and swore Karsh was a stupid Jew and the whole lot of them needed to be exterminated like the bugs they were."

            "Jesus!" I swore.  "H.G. Wells was a writer, wasn't he?"

            "Yes, indeed he was, he had visions of the future, and wrote them into The Time Machine." Evy explained.  

            "What about Eva Braun?"

            "Eva Braun was her maiden name.  Her married name was Eva Hitler geb Braun."

            "Hitler, who would marry him?"

            "A very scared woman, Liz.  He promised her protection from his gang-raping troops if she agreed to marry him and be his right hand.  He used her visions to keep afloat in the war for as long as he did and to kill as many non-Germans as possible.  She decided he couldn't be stopped as long as she kept helping him, so she committed suicide with his gun.  Once she was gone, he knew there was no winning and he shot himself a little while after her."

            "Wow, that's really very sad.  What about this?" I asked, tapping my finger against the question mark on the bottom line.

            "Hold on, there's an inscription here." Evy replied, running her fingers along fine print at the bottom of the chart.  She furrowed her brows a moment, and then read, "The Twelfth Sibyl is prophesized to surface in the twenty-second century by Eva Braun, Fr. Laurence of Rome, Jehanne Darc, and Cleopatra.  That's exactly right if it's you, Elizabeth."

            "How, I'm not related to any of these people, I don't think.  I mean, I know for sure I'm not Chinese, or French, or, come to think of it, German."

            "Well, if you're the Twelfth Sibyl, then you must be related to one of them, and if you're related to one of them, you're related to all of them." Evy replied.  "I guess if you have doubts, you could use a computer to research your family tree.  Ms. Apple's the only one with a computer here in the library, but the lab is just down the hall.  The computer's record every click you make, so, if you don't want Ms. Harper on your back, stay after class someday and use my laptop.  It's not much, but it's enough to work on."

            "Okay, how 'bout now?" I asked, shuffling my feet nervously.  Ms. Evy opened her mouth to reply and the bell rang for the end of lunch.  "I better go, I don't want to be late, and I don't want anyone getting suspicious about me." I chuckled, hitching my books against my hip before I dropped them.

            "Hey Liz," She said softly.  "Take these before you go to bed, they'll help you sleep without dreaming." Evy whispered, pressing a tiny bottle of pills into my free hand and pushing my fist closed.  I nodded gravely and clenched my hand around the bottle.  She stood silently and watched me shuffle off and when I reached the library door, she called, "Be careful, Elizabeth.  Be careful and be safe."


	15. Shock

**Chapter 15**

            I was late to Biology, but I didn't care.  Everyone was up by the teacher's desk checking his or her grades, so I slipped into my seat unnoticed.  I took notes like a perfect little student, and aced the quiz, but it wasn't me, I wasn't there.  I was numb, stupefied, dazed, in shock, and oblivious to everything but the overload of information that had changed my life forever and that small bottle of pills still clenched in my left hand.  While walking to class, I had realized I would never be the same, that this was serious, and I couldn't tell anyone.  Now I was really alone, more alone than ever before, or ever after.

            I turned my simple chemistry experiment into smoking foam that choked the other kids, ate through the table in a matter of seconds, and severely burned my forearm.  We vacated the room quickly and the teacher clicked her tongue in disappointment, then she saw my arm.  "Oh my, we better get you to the nurse right away before that does anymore damage." She said, and I looked down at my arm, bleeding profusely and a sickly green color, but I felt nothing.  I let Ms. Davis lead me down the hall, around the corner, and to the nurse's office.  The nurse looked pale, and possibly sick when she saw my arm, but she gently washed my arm and wrapped it up and sent me home.  

            "Take these when your arm hurts again, no more than four a day, and change the gauze every two hours, wash it with alcohol first.  I want to see you once a week, every Monday after school, to check on that arm.  Okay?" The nurse requested gently.  "By the way, I'm Mrs. Beachly." I nodded and shuffled down the hall, thinking about her.

            Mrs. Beachly was a big, curvaceous black woman, with her hair parted on the side and slicked back and clipped up.  She wore the classic nurse uniform and nearly popped the buttons down the front of the white blouse.  Her white skirt hung lightly against her knee and her stockings shined slightly against her midnight complexion.  Her white tennis shoes weren't very white anymore and were worn to a soft shuffle when she moved.  She had a high forehead, big, warm brown eyes, and the friendliest smile I'd ever seen, and without a second thought, I liked her.

            Ms. Davis walked me as far as the dining hall, and then Cara took over and she left without a word.  I shuffled along, led by Cara, who mumbled soothing words I cared not to hear.  She took me back to my room, and, fully clothed still, except for shoes, tucked me into bed.  "Now, get some sleep, and I'll be back in a minute with a glass of water for you." Cara promised.  I nodded listlessly and awaited her return.  Every inch of my body ached and it hurt to keep my eyes open.  I listened as Cara ran water in the bathroom; shut it off, and the clink of glass against porcelain.  She set the glass down on my nightstand and I opened my eyes to look at her.

            She turned to leave, but I whispered, "Cara, your plan, what was it?"

            "It doesn't matter now." She replied.

            "Yes it does.  I want to know." I insisted.

            "Alright, but it sounds stupid now." Cara sighed.  She sat down on the edge of the bed and began.  "Okay, first of all, have you seen Nightmare on Elm Street?  You know, the Freddy movies?"

            "Of course, those are my favorite scary movies ever!  They don't make 'em like they used to, I mean, how many different ways can you kill someone?" I gushed.

            "Okay, that's a big yes.  If you're such a Freddy expert, this is going to be easier than I had hoped for." Cara laughed.  "Well, in one of the Freddy movies, I forget which one, the girl gets a hold of Freddy and pulls him out of the dream and into the real world where he can be killed.  I was thinking, maybe, you could do that, and when you pulled him through, the girls and I could be waiting and we could beat him to a bloody pulp." She finished.  "What do you think?"

            I laughed, softly at first.  I felt as if I were falling into the bottom of a deep cavernous hole, and even though I tried, I knew there was no way out, ever.  Now I was laughing, half-hysterical, while Cara gave me the funniest look.  I had snapped; my mind had left me to fend for myself without it, and I couldn't stop laughing.  I probably would have laughed forever, had that sharp sting of a slap across my cheek not brought tears to my eyes, switching laughter to sobbing.

            I buried my head against Cara and sobbed breathlessly while she patted me gently on the back and shushed me.  After the longest time, she forced me to sit up and in a moment of weakness, I blubbered out all the day's events, including every agonizing detail Evy had given me.  She looked solemn, sad, and paler than I'd ever seen her before.  "Liz, is all this true?" She asked me.  I nodded and sniffled my nose loudly.  "Does Ms. Evy know you've told me about everything else?"  I nodded again.

            "She doesn't want me to tell anyone else though, but you said I have to tell the girls, but I really don't know what to do!" I whined.

            "Shush, shush, it's alright.  Before we do anything, I think we should see the cave again; Ms. Evy too." Cara decided.  "That's where you were when you experienced a real life piece of your dream.  I'll go find her while you get the statue and Dane." She said, standing up and walking to the door.

            "Dane!  No, no, we can't involve him." I whined.  "Ms. Evy doesn't know about him.  As far as she knows, you're the only person in the world I've told."

            "So we'll tell her when I find her.  Why didn't you?" Cara shrugged.

            "Because he's not supposed to be here and I don't want to get him tossed out."

            "Liz, if Evy is trusted enough for you to talk to, and she to you, I think the secret of Dane is safe with her." Cara assured me.  I nodded again in agreement.  With that, she left.  As soon as she was out the door, I threw back the covers and hobbled to the bathroom.  I flipped on the light and examined both my arm and my neck.

            My neck was healing fast, and it made me quite nervous to see that the holes were skinned over already.  My arm stuck to the gauze as I peeled it back and the sight made my stomach clench, and I barely leaned over the toilet before the contents came back up.  I flushed the toilet and washed my face and mouth.  I looked at myself in the mirror, but that couldn't possibly be me.  This girl's face was pale and drawn with gray-white lips and skin, dark purple rings beneath her eyes, and a strangled look in them.  

             I forced myself to look at my arm again, and it looked alien to me.  I could see deep into it, my blood was tinged with green, and it oozed sickly.  I let the water pour over my arm from the faucet for several minutes and I wrapped it in the fresh gauze Mrs. Beachly had given me.  I redressed my neck also and pulled my turtleneck back into place.  I flipped the light off and stumbled back to bed and chased one of Evy's pills with the entire glass of water.

            I jotted a quick note to Dane and snuck across the hall to send it up to him.  T wasn't in her room, so I worked quickly so as to be done before she returned to ask questions.  I tossed the note in the dumbwaiter, closed the heavy iron door, and pushed the sixth floor button a dozen times to make sure it went straight to Dane.  I sighed thoughtfully and padded softly back to bed.  I crawled into bed, feeling nauseous, sleepy, and irritable.


	16. All tied up!

**Chapter 16**

                         Someone shook me and I painfully opened my eyes to see Evy, Cara and Dane, surrounding my bed.  I groaned and rolled over, but Cara whipped the covers down and I sat up.  Evy swung my legs over the edge of the bed and put my shoes on my feet, a very motherly gesture indeed.  She took my hands and pulled me to my feet while Dane rummaged through my closet for something.  Dane tossed a coat to Cara, mumbling something about the weather, and Evy took it and I shoved myself into it.

            "What's this all about?" I finally managed to ask when Evy led me out into the hall.

            "Shush honey, I'll explain outside." Evy replied in a low, hushed voice.

            "What time is it?" I whined.

            "Late, really late, so hush." Cara answered.

            "Dane, did you get my note?" I asked, still groggy.

            "Yeah, try not to talk anymore, we don't want to get caught." He scolded me.

            His words stung, but I bit back my reply and silently let them lead me.  Evy, Cara, and Dane led me down the hall, down the stairs, across the front hall, and out the door without so much as a whisper or a squeak underfoot.  The night air bit my face and I held my coat closed around me tight.  Evy had her arm around my shoulder, holding me close against her and we walked swiftly across the gravel drive to a small black car.

            Cara and Dane had gone ahead of us and had disappeared inside the car.  When we drew nearer to the vehicle, Dane popped up out of the driver's side window and Evy threw him the keys without a second thought.  She opened the back passenger door and the two of us slide into the back seat.  The moment the door was closed, Dane hit the gas and we sped away from Ms. Harper's School for Girls.

            "Where are we going?" I demanded, wide awake now.

            "My house." Evy replied.  "It's not far, we should be there in about half an hour."

            "What time is it?" I asked, unable to tell by looking out the window at the endless black night, clouded by the fog from my breath.

            "It's about one, honey.  Go ahead and sleep, I'll wake you when we get there." She promised.

            "Why are we going anywhere?" I grumbled.

            "I'll explain later." She replied gently.  I napped a little in the speeding car, and Evy woke me, as promised, when the car shut off.  "We're here, honey.  Come on, wake up, we've got to get in the house."  I groaned, but I allowed myself to be taken inside without too much trouble.  The door slammed behind me, making me jump, and a light came on, nearly blinding me.

            Evy's place was nice, very richly furnished for a teacher's salary.  The walls were lemon cream, and the front hall, living room, and kitchen all opened up together.  The living room had a small TV in the corner, obviously not used much, but the rest of the room was bookcases, leather furniture, and red cabernet carpet.  Dane gently shoved me down on the couch and flopped down beside me.  I think Cara snorted, but she didn't say anything as she sat down in the nearest leather chair.

            "Would you like some tea or cocoa, Elizabeth?" Evy asked.

            "Cocoa please." I replied, and Dane and Cara mumbled the same.  Ms. Evy smiled and wandered into the kitchen, rattling pots and pans and cabinet doors.  She reappeared a few minutes later and shuffled through the bookcases, looking for something.  "So, are you going to tell me why I'm here and not in my warm bed, or did you just want to visit and have tea?" I snapped sleepily.  Ms. Evy looked up, somewhat startled by my harsh accusation.  She grabbed a book or two off the shelf and dropped them on the coffee table with a "thunk".

            "You know what today is, right?  I suggest you not be sharp with me or I shall help you no more." Evy replied.

            "I'm sorry, I get a little stupid when I'm tired, so just ignore me." I sighed.

            Ms. Evy's expression softened and she said, "It's alright, the air makes foul humors of otherwise sweet dispositions.  Tonight's air is especially bad it seems."

            "Okay, why did you bring me here?" I asked gently.

            "Cara and Dane showed me the cave, Elizabeth.  On tonight of all nights, that is a dangerous place to be near, especially for sensitive people like you and me." Evy replied ominously.  "I never told you the profound importance of this night, did I?"  I shook my head, now curious.  "Once a year, Atlanteans open the gap and walk through the Etherealm."

            "Yeah, I remember, so what?" I laughed.

            "That night is this night." She finished.  "And regardless of if someone is there to cross or not, the gap will open itself.  It may draw you to itself and suck you in.  That is why we brought you here, Elizabeth.  The cave is one of these gateway places." Evy sighed and said, "You'll thank me for this later, but you'll hate me for it now.  Cara, get the rope."

            "What, what's going on?" I stuttered as Dane grabbed my wrists.  He hauled me off the sofa, dragged me to a wooden chair sitting near the fireplace, and shoved me hard into it.  The chair teetered with my unbalanced body, but Dane settled it with one extended foot against the leg.  He circled behind the chair, and before I could react, he reached out and pinned my arms painfully behind me.  "Dane, what the hell are you doing, you're hurting me!" I growled through gritted teeth, looking over my shoulder at him.  He looked genuinely sorry, but held me tight, despite the fact that I thrashed wildly about.

            Cara reappeared a few minutes later, carrying a good amount of heavy rope and chain.  She looked pale and exhausted, but her steps didn't falter as she helped Evy tie and cuff my hands where Dane held them.  "I'm truly sorry about this, Liz." Cara sighed.  Evy and her wrapped the rope and chain tightly around my torso, tying me to the chair.

            "Then don't freaking do it, Cara!" I screeched.

            "Trust me, Elizabeth, this is for your own good." Evy promised, attempting to sooth me.  Now I know my only chance was to free myself, so I kicked and screamed and rocked the chair, forcing Dane to hold me down until the last bit of rope was tied and my ankles were cuffed.  I continued to scream as loud as I could even after tied tightly to the chair, but Evy stifled me with duct tape.  "As soon as you calm down, I'll take that off, but for now, you need to think in silence." She explained.  Then she turned to the others and said, "We must speak a bit more, follow me to the study.  As for you, Elizabeth," She said, turning back to me, "I think you need some time alone, and I'm going to give you that."

            The three of them disappeared down the hall despite my plaintive moans, groans, and finally, sobs.  I felt betrayed, used, stabbed in the back, by the most important people in my life.  My best friend and confidant, my boyfriend whom I trusted with my life, and my teacher, though she was much more than that.  I shamelessly wailed, letting the tears run freely down my face, hanging my head against my chest mornfully.  Then I felt hope when I spotted the keys to my cuffs lying nearby on a table.

            I continued crying so they wouldn't hear the noise as i hopped my chair across the floor towards that table.  I was close enough to reach out and grab them with my fingers when Dane sauntered out and snatched them up.  I let out a despondent sigh and let my head fall back to look up at him, silently calling him every dirty word I could think off.  Then I shook the chair violently, scooting it across the floor , snarling and swearing at him.  Dane stepped out of the way, but my chair landed on his toe, lost it's balance, and fell backwards, knocking the wind out of me.

            "Damn that hurt, woman, what'd you do that for?" Dane swore angrily.  I yelled at him under the tape again, and he watched me with a glint of a smile in his eyes.  "You know I can hear you, right?"  I stared at him, confused.  "You think everything right before you say it, so I've caught everything you've just said, Liz.  I didn't even know you knew those words!" He explained before he burst out laughing, a grin spread across his adorable face. 

            _You look so damned hot when you're mad, did you know that? He thought.  He laughed some more while I stared at him silently.  _Oh damn, I completely forgot!_  Dane reached out a ripped the tape from my mouth in one clear move.  Then he tipped the chair right side up again.  "Sorry."_

            "Damn it, Dane, that hurt like hell!" I winced.  I took one heaving breath before speaking again, and when I did, I left him no room to reply, shouting, "You stupid, back-stabbing, son of a bitch!  I can't believe I trusted your lying ass!  And don't even think about playing nice because I will never, ever, forgive you for this!  I could kill you for this, and when I get loose, what I did to Brock will look like a pinprick after I get done with you, Dane, I mean it!  Just you wait until I -"

            I didn't get a chance to finish my speech because suddenly Dane's mouth was on mine, hot, demanding, almost painful, and all rational thought left my head.  I was dimly aware of his weight on my legs and hips, but only because he was burning holes in my skirt wherever his body met mine.  Instinctively, I lifted my hips against his and he groaned deeply, using his big hands to hold my hips down.  His tongue was driving me crazy, searing me deep inside as he barely touched it to mine.  Suddenly, just sudden as it had began, Dane released my mouth, and my hips, stood, and took a ragged, fortifying breath.

            "You drive me wild, did you know that?" He laughed softly.  I sighed and smiled at him.

            "Then I guess I shouldn't be the one chained to a chair, huh?" I began.

            His eyes grew darker, more serious, and he voiced what we both knew.  "I can't let you go, Elizabeth." He stated simply, rarely ever did he use my full name.  "You know that."

            "Why?  I mean, if you let me loose, I'm not going to kill anybody, and I'm not going to go to the cave.  No way I'd go there after what Evy said.  You could let me out, and we could go somewhere," I whispered seductively, slowly running my tongue across my bottom lip.  "You know, just the two of us.  We could have a little fun, after all, it is Halloween, and you deserve some candy for all this hard work you've done keeping little ol' me from running off."

            Dane watched my mouth, breathing heavy, hands balled up in fists, eyes black and hot with obvious longing, and then he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Don't tempt me, woman.  If I thought for one second you meant that, we'd be in my car right now, going 80 miles an hour." His words sucked the breath from my chest and the voice from my throat at the intensity of it.  "As much as I'd love to, and you have no clue how much that is, Liz, I know you too well.  You wouldn't kill me, but you'd sure as hell do some serious damage, that I'm sure of." He sighed.

            Rage boiled over and I swore at him with every word I knew for a minute before he retaped my mouth.  He rested one hand on my shoulder, the other on my hip while I drifted into silence, and it drove me crazy that even as mad as I was, he could still distract me like he always has.  He leaned over real slow, rested his cheek against mine, and whispered in my ear, "If it were up to me , we'd be dancing naked in that cave, if you know what I mean, right this second.  But there's always tomorrow."  Without meeting my gaze again, he kissed my forehead softly and sauntered back down the hall, but not before I saw his very snug jeans.  Then I regained my brain, remembered I was mad at him, and did my best to give him a migraine with my mental screaming.

            I slipped into a restless sleep shortly after.  Nothing in the dream made sense, it was all flashes of light and other things I couldn't see very well.  I felt cold, rough, wet rock beneath my feet and my hands.  The room pulsed with light and energy and vibrations.  Voices, too many to pick out any particular one, swirled through my head; some whispers, some shouts, some fearful, some sorrowful, and some angry as hell.  I tried to cover my ears, but it did nothing to restrain them, it only made them louder.

            One voice stood out, saying, "It has begun!"  It was Evy speaking, somewhere in the real world, where I no longer was.  "Dane, hold her still, Cara, get the candles."  I strained as hard as I could against the chains, thrashing and screaming wildly.  My only thought was to go to the cave because if I went there, the voices would stop.  I opened my eyes and saw Evy, Cara, and Dane standing outside a ring of candles, surrounding me.  The candles were connected by blue sand and Evy chanted softly in a language that seemed oddly familiar.  Lights flashed in my head and again I was in the cave with the loud insistent voices.  I screamed and bucked against the chair, faintly hearing a sharp command from Evy, followed by the sting of the tape being ripped off again.  I heard chanting again and realized it was my own mouth voicing loose the strange language.

            Evy replied in the language and a shockwave rolled through me as I understood it.  I looked at her in a new light; she had let her hair fall loose in the auburn curls I hadn't noticed she'd had because it was always pulled back tightly, a shadow caste across her upturned nose, and her eyes glowed in the candlelight.  They were an unnatural hue of blue, almost purple it seemed, with flecks of gray.  She stared back at me, arms outstretched, eyes swirling to deep, dark violet, and spoke again.  She had asked me where I'd learned the language.

            I stared listlessly, fascinated by the change Evy had undergone.  She now wore a loose blue robe and a large oval amulet about her neck, and had painted a strange swirling dragon shape along the shape of her face in the same blue as the robe.  The amulet was the same color as her eyes, but it changed as hers did.  She looked completely different.  She looked Atlantean.

            "Zneup." Evy commanded.  "Speak."

            "Jrk?" I asked. "Why?"

            "Raj wa kai pgaj vrez?  Jromo wew kai tov ev?  Ugzjom bo!" Evy demanded, eyes fiery.

            "E wagv pgaj!  E wagv pgaj! Zvan kossegt uv bo! E wagv pgaj jromo E tav ev! E zjeum!" I screamed, meaning, "I don't know, I don't know, stop yelling at me, I don't know where I got it, I swear."

            "Dane, hold her down, now!" Evy commanded.  Dane nodded curtly and, stepping over the candles, came over to me and put all his weight against my chest and arms.

            "Dane, stop it, you're hurting me!  Let me go, I'm already tied up." I cried, but he only stared at me, and I realized I was still speaking the language.  "Dane, please!" I whined in English.

            "Elizabeth, where did you hear that?" Evy demanded, stepping inside the ring, and walking over to stand before me.  All I heard was the soft swish of her robe, for I was still begging Dane.  "Elizabeth!" She commanded, grabbing my chin hard and jerking my head to face her.  She carefully placed both hands on either side of my face so all I could see was her, and spoke again.  "Elizabeth," softer this time, "where did you hear that language?"

            I stared at her blankly, my mind shattered.  "Language?"

            "Yes deary, it's Atlantean.  Now think hard, where did you hear it?" She pleaded.

            "I don't know, is it written in the cave?" I asked dumbly.

            "I'm not sure, but there's no way you would know how to speak it if you've never heard it, so you must've heard it somewhere." Evy explained.  "Do you remember where you heard it, or maybe who spoke it even?"

            I shook my head and let the song that had tried to consume my mind since I had left the cave, take it, and I hummed it listlessly, incapable of complex thought any longer.  Evy's eyes widened and she began humming along with me, then she began singing with it.  "Xabo ugw zoo, xabo ugw zoo, vro jagwomz ah aim jamsw.  Xabo ugw zoo, xabo ugw zoo, aim jumb zou ugw xaas sugw, U jagwomhis nsuxo va yo.  Uvsugvez ez  butgehexogv!  Uvsugvez sedoz ag! Uvsugvez sedoz." 

            I stopped humming and listened to Evy's soft voice in the foreign tongue.  She finished the song and smiled wistfully.  "What does that mean?" I asked,  suddenly at a loss with the language. Evy looked somewhat startled at the sudden English voice after almost silence.  Dane hadn't released me, but he hadn't been paying attention to me, so his weight was no longer painful against me, and Cara nowhere to be seen.  Evy cleared her throat, ready to explain, when a dreadful scream echoed through the house.


End file.
